Mumbai, June 1 (IANS) Led by Suresh Raina, a depleted Indian cricket team left for the West Indies in the early hours of Wednesday for a Twenty20 and the five-match ODI series starting June 4.
The Indian team left for London from where they will catch a connecting flight to Bridgetown, Barbados. The Twenty20 encounter will be played June 4 in Trinidad, which will also host the first two ODI slated for June 6 and June 8. Antigua will host the third (June 11) and the fourth (June 13), and Jamaica will host the final match June 16.
The ODI series would be followed by a three-Test rubber in Jamaica (June 20-June 24), Barbados (June 28-Jul 2) and Dominica (July 6-July 10).
Nine players of the World Cup winning squad are missing. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan have been rested while Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh are unwell. Sreesanth and Piyush Chawla have been dropped.
Dhoni and Zaheer will join the team for the Test matches along with V.V.S. Laxman, Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, and Sreesanth.
In 2006, when India toured under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, the visitors beat the home team 1-0 in a four-match series for the first time in 35 years. India, however, lost the five-match ODI series 1-4.
ODI and T20 squad: Suresh Raina (captain), R. Ashwin, S. Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket=keeperk), Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan.
Test squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), V.V.S. Laxman (vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S. Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel.
