When India's 18-member squad for the ODI and T20I series against West Indies was announced, there was a line mentioned in the press released by the BCCI which went unnoticed by many. Right at the end, there was a section called 'Notes', under which it was mentioned that KL Rahul will be available for the series from the second match onwards.
Rahul, who captain India in the ODI series against South Africa last month, will return to concentrate solely on his batting as India would look to put behind the disappointing result against the Proteas and start afresh as Rohit Sharma leads India in his first full-time assignment as captain.
It is due to KL Rahul's unavailability that the BCCI were forced to add Mayank Agarwal in the ODI squad after it was confirmed that the batting trio of Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad were hit with Covid-19 and would miss the three 50-over matches against West Indies. Ideally, Dhawan would have opened the innings with Rohit, but with the left-hander and Gaikwad, the second opener, out of scheme for now, the India captain is set to open with Mayank Agarwal as his partner.
Now the big question. Why is Rahul not available for selection and is missing the opening match. As per several media reports, the India vice-captain is out of the first ODI due to a family engagement. ESPNCricinfo reported that the reason why Rahul hasn't joined the Indian squad in Ahmedabad is because he will be occupied with his sister’s wedding. No further information has been revealed.
Ideally, Rahul would have batted at No. 4 for India in the West Indies ODIs, but with Dhawan out, the 29-year-old batter will reunite at the top with Rohit in the second and third games on 9th and 11th February respectively. Rahul’s stocks hit an all-time high lately as he was recently named captain of the Lucknow Super Giants – one of the two franchises to be making its debut at IPL 2022. Rahul tied Virat Kohli as the join-costliest player in IPL as LSG acquired him for a sum of ₹17 crore.