IND vs WI | Shahrukh Khan, Sai Kishore to join India squad as reserves for West Indies series - Reports

The Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) recently announced the India T20I and ODI squads for the upcoming white-ball series against West Indies. The trip will begin with the first 50-over match on February 6 in Ahmedabad, and Rohit Sharma will begin his ODI captaincy stint during the three-match series.

The entire ODI series will be held in Ahmedabad, while the three-match T20I series will be played in Kolkata. Ravi Bishnoi and Deepak Hooda earned their maiden call-up to Team India, and Kuldeep Yadav made his come back to the national side. Since the pandemic has started, several series's and tournaments have been affected due to the Covid-19, and owing to the same, the selectors have included Shahrukh Khan and R Sai Kishore to the Indian squad as reserve players.

According to a report in the Times of India, the BCCI selectors have included the Tamil Nadu cricketers as the stand-by players.

“The BCCI wants to have all its bases covered. With the third wave still persisting, the Board cannot take a chance and Shahrukh and Sai Kishore have been added to the squad. Sai Kishore will be a good handy bowler at the nets too,” the source told TOI.

The Tamil Nadu team will miss the services of Shahrukh Khan and R Sai Kishore in their initial matches, which may force them to make changes in the squad for the upcoming domestic tournament. 

“Once the West Indies series would have ended, Washington would have been available. So the management was okay to play the first couple of matches with 19 players. Now the team composition might change with both Shahrukh and Sai missing. A final decision will be taken in the next two days,” the source added.

The source further added that the BCCI is likely to schedule the knockout phase of the tournament in Chennai.

“When the initial phase was planned, Chennai was supposed to host Plate matches. BCCI are likely to keep the schedule intact. The knockout phase starts in June and it is the start of the monsoon in the country. However, Chennai doesn’t get much rain during that phase. So BCCI is likely to schedule the knockout phase in Chennai,” the source said.