ESPNcricinfo has learnt Kohli, Bumrah and Chahal have been rested, and Kohli, who picked up a “mild groin strain” in England, continues to remain in the team management’s plans for the T20 World Cup later this year despite his lean form.
“I don’t know who the experts are,” Rohit had said last week. “I don’t even understand why they are called experts. They are watching it from outside, they don’t know what is going on the inside. We are building a team. A lot of deliberation goes behind it. There is a lot of thinking behind it. Boys are backed. Boys are given chances. People outside don’t know all these things. It is not important what is going on outside.”
Deepak Hooda, who made his maiden T20I century in Ireland in June, has been retained in Kohli’s absence, as have Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav.
India’s squad for the five T20Is: Rohit Sharma (capt), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
*The inclusion of KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav is subject to fitness.