After newly appointed Indian white-ball vice-captain KL Rahul was injured after the second one-day international of the three-game series against West Indies at Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera. Rahul did not take the field for the ODI series finale which India won and completed a 3-0 sweep.
KL Rahul will not be part of the T20i series due to a hamstring injury. While in Rahul’s absence, BCCI have named a new vice-captain for the T20I series. Rishabh Pant has been promoted as Rohit’s deputy for the T20I series. This is the first time that Rishabh Pant has been named as Team India’s vice-captain for a series as the left-hander continues to grow in stature.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in its latest announcement on February 14, 2022, revealed that Rishabh Pant has been made the vice-captain of the Indian T20I team for the three T20Is against West Indies, which will be played on February 16, 18 and 20 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Notably, Rishabh Pant has been earmarked as one of the future leaders of the team. While the Delhi wicketkeeper hasn’t been part of the leadership group so far, Rishabh Pant has proved his mettle as captain, leading the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League 2021 season. Pant was retained by Delhi Capitals as the former finalists built a squad around the aggressive wicketkeeper in the mega auction.
India’s T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda, Kuldeep Yadav.