India vs West Indies: Evin Lewis Withdraws From Limited-Overs Series, Cites Personal Reasons

Barely days before the start of the five-match India-West Indies ODI series, Windies opening batsman Evin Lewis has pulled out of the India tour, citing personal reasons. The announcement was made by Cricket West Indies on Wednesday. According to the ICC, Lewis will be replaced by Kieran Powell in the ODI team and Nicholas Pooran for the T20I series, which starts November 4. The Windies lost the Test series 0-2 and go into the ODI and T20I series without star players such as Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard.

Lewis is a seasoned batsman, who has represented the Windies in 35 ODIs and 17 T20Is. His last 50-over international outing was against Bangladesh in July 2018.

Team India, led by Virat Kohli, will look to inflict another ODI and T20I whitewash on a Windies side that looks fragile. India have roped in young wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant for the first two ODIs. Other notable inclusion is that of left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, who performed exceedingly well in the Asia Cup, which India won after beating Bangladesh in the final.

India Squad (first two ODIs): Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, KL Rahul.

The first ODI will be played on October 21 in Guwahati at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, whereas the second game will be hosted by the YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on October 24. Both the ODIs will be day-night fixtures.