Fans celebrate after Sanju Samson makes India ODI return in West Indies series

Sanju Samson (Pic: AFP)

Following a seismic defeat at the hands of Australia during the World Test Championship final a week ago, the Men in Blue have made some big calls by bringing in some new faces for the Test and ODI setup against West Indies. India's Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara faced the axe, while uncapped batsmen Yashaswi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad were drafted in.

The one-day squad features a lot of the regulars, with Sanju Samson finding himself as a part of the white ball setup as well, with KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant sidelined with injuries. Enlivened at his inclusion, fans were quick to celebrate the wicketkeeper-batsman's return to the squad.

The ODI squad didn't have any major surprises with 17 members literally picking themselves. The injured Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, and Rahul, whenever fit, also select themselves, and together these 20 players will most likely make the core group going into the big World Cup.

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Meanwhile, besides the exclusion of Pujara, the other significant development was Ajinkya Rahane's re-appointment as the vice-captain of the Test side just after making an international comeback in the previous game. While Mohammed Shami has been given complete rest from both Tests and ODIs after nearly three months of hectic competitive cricket, the selectors have indeed started the phasing out process by dropping the profligate Umesh Yadav and bringing in the consistent Kolkata seamer Mukesh Kumar in the main squad.

Navdeep Saini, whose career had been in free-fall since the historic tour of Australia, also gets a chance for resurrection as his hit-the-deck (140 clicks) bowling might be effective on the slow Caribbean tracks. All three new entrants, Jaiswal, Gaikwad, and Mukesh, were the stand-by players for the WTC final. They have been very consistent in domestic cricket over the past few seasons.

India's ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.