India vs West Indies, 1st T20I: Focus firmly on T20 World Cup

Batting coach Rathour prefers Rishabh Pant in the middle-order for West Indies T20IsKOLKATA: It's almost eight months to the next T20 World Cup and the Indian team management has the global event in mind as they begin the three-match T20 International series against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday. The team think-tank will get more than 10 T20I matches apart from the India Premier League (IPL) and the Asia Cup series to sort out its final squad for the T20 WC in Australia.

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Battling a prolonged lean patch, former India captain Virat Kohli batted at the nets and also took throw-downs during India's first practice session ahead of the Twenty20 series against the West Indies.

Batting coach Vikram Rathour clearly spelt out that the strategies from now will be drawn keeping an eye on the World Cup. "We are working towards the World Cup in Australia," he said during a virtual media interaction. But at the same time, he pointed out that it's still early days and no specific road map has been arrived at. "Unfortunately we are struggling a bit with injuries with few people missing out. Till we have everyone available, it's difficult to make sure what their roles are going to be." India will miss vice-captain KL Rahul and allrounder Axar Patel in this series. While Rahul sustained a hamstring strain while fielding in the second ODI in Ahmedabad, Axar is in his "final stage of rehabilitation" after recovering from Covid-19. Rathour, however, is optimistic that Indian players will not have any trouble Down Under. "The type of batters we have...they are all capable of doing well in such conditions."

The team tried out Rishabh Pant as an opener in one