3 surprising selections in India's squads for the West Indies tour

#1 Rohit Sharma – Test squad

Can Rohit finally come off age in the Test arena?

The most surprising selection for India’s tour to the West Indies has to be that of Rohit Sharma. The right-hander has captured the imagination of one and all in white-ball cricket yet, has somehow managed to flounder spectacularly in the Test arena.

At the moment, Rohit Sharma boasts of a decent average of 39.62 in Tests. However, that number is slightly skewed considering two of his three centuries have come against the West Indies while the other was scored against Sri Lanka at Nagpur. More worryingly though, in 47 Test innings, the Indian ODI vice-captain has managed only three fifty-plus scores outside Asia.

On spicy pitches, his technique has been found wanting several times and he hasn’t been able to address those chinks well enough to forge a Test career in steel yet.

Though he scored a fifty in his last Test, the only reason the right-hander featured was because the Indian think-tank decided to play the extra batsman.

Thus, the Indians clearly showcased that he wasn’t at the forefront of their Test plans earlier in the year.

However, this time around, there seems to be renewed optimism, fuelled by his incredible run at the World Cup in England. But Test cricket is vastly different from the limited-overs format and none would accept that fact more than Rohit.

Come August, the middle-order batsman will have another bite at the Test cherry. Yet, that is astonishing considering Rohit has had countless previous nibbles at it and has come up short on most occasions.