Bengaluru, June 29: India's new head coach Anil Kumble today (June 29) picked fast bowler Ishant Sharma to be the leader of the attack in next month's 4-Test series against the West Indies.
; 'Jumbo' journey begins" />Ind-WI series schedule; 'Jumbo' journey begins
With only 4 members of the 17-man Indian squad having playing experience in the Caribbean (with the senior side), Kumble felt along with those, his knowledge will help.
Captain Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Amit Mishra and Ishant are the 4 players who have previously played Tests in the Caribbean.
Kumble, on Wednesday, took charge as the head coach of the Indian team. He met the players on the first day of a preparatory camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) inside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
India won the 3-Test series against West Indies 1-0 in June-July 2011. Ishant was the Man-of-the-series for being the highest wicket-taker with 22 victims at an average of 16.86. His best was 10/108. He had 2 five-wicket hauls. So far in his career, Ishant has 201 Test wickets from 68 matches.
Kohli did not have much success, scoring only 76 runs in 5 innings. Mishra took 4 wickets, in 1 Test, in the series while Vijay too had a poor outing with just 72 runs in 6 visits to the crease.
Kumble said the last series victory will give India confidence this time. "(There are) only 4 players who have been to the West Indies. (And) couple of them with India A. Last time we won 1-0 (in 2011). Ishant (Sharma) was Man-of-the-series. There is experinece. He (Ishant) will be the leader to take the bowling attack," Kumble told reporters.
"Virat (Kohli) has already played there, so are Murali (Vijay) and Amit (Mishra). Obviously I have been there before, I will bring in my experience. West Indies is always a tough team at home. Yes, lot of changes have happpened in the West Indies. They are formidable in shorter format. The conditions are not dissimilar to India. Team is geared up for whatever challenge (we face)," he added.
India Test squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Stuart Binny.
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