BCCI on Saturday announced the 12 players who will be part of the first T20 between India and West Indies in Kolkata tomorrow.
"The Indian team management has named the 12 ahead of the first T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. After winning the Test series 2-0 and a comprehensive 3-1 victory in the recently concluded ODI series, the Indian Cricket Team will now play Windies in the three-match Paytm T20I Series," BCCI said in a statement
Earlier, Even though India will be playing the T20 format, Rohit termed the three-match series as an extension of the ongoing World Cup preparation.
"We cannot go into the World Cup with limited resources. We need to have options. This gives you a great platform to try and test all these guys," Rohit said, laying emphasis on the bench strength.
"It's very important because the amount of cricket we play, at the same time we got to see what our bench strength is. The players we are talking of are possible replacements to come and fill in. We have to see the guys who are knocking the door and what they bring to the table." "Not just the 15 players we got to see what is outside the 15 players we have. There are a lot of new faces in the team," he said.
India have named uncapped left-arm spin duo of Krunal Pandya and Shahbaz Nadeem, who returned with a world record List A figures of 8/10 for Jharkhand in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy.
"Shahbaz Nadeem has come in the team for the first time, Krunal (Pandya) was part of the team but didn't play any games.
"These are the few names who have come and we got to see them what they have in their armoury for us to make the best possible squad in the World Cup," said Rohit.
Talking about captaincy, Rohit said he's a batsman first but overall he enjoyed the extra responsibility even as a stand-in leader.
The XII: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal
