Yuvraj Singh was unavailable for the 4th ODI and not rested

An upbeat India takes on a wounded West Indies in the 4th ODI of the series at Antigua. Team India effortlessly won the 2nd and 3rd ODIs, while the first one was called off due to incessant rains. In what has been a one-sided series so far, a major point of discussion was if the dominant visitors would give a chance to their talented bench strength in the 4th ODI, which will also decide who wins the series.

Yuvraj Singh has been out of touch in the last couple of games, except for his sensational half century against Pakistan in India’s opening game of the Champions Trophy 2017. The once very attacking and aggressive batsman has been able to muster only 162 runs in his last 8 outings in ODIs, which placed a question mark against his name to decide his future in the Indian team. He scored a 39 in the 3rd ODI, not huge score but good enough to bring his confidence back.

However, he had to be left out of the XI for the 4th ODI due to a sore hamstring. This was confirmed by Harsha Bhogle on Twitter as he tweeted, “So Yuvraj’s hamstring sore enough to warrant a rest. Prudent”

Although he has been consistently underperforming, Yuvraj has the backing of skipper Virat Kohli who knows that on his day, Yuvi can fight fire with fire.

So Yuvraj's hamstring sore enough to warrant a rest. Prudent.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) July 2, 2017

In place of Yuvraj, Dinesh Karthik has been given a chance. Karthik has been a consistent performer in the domestic seasons, on the back of which he travelled to England replacing the injured Manish Pandey and has continued to the tour of West Indies. Meanwhile, youngster Rishabh Pant is still waiting for his call in the playing XI and if India wins the game and the series today, Pant in high probability can be expected to feature in the final ODI, while a senior player can be rest.

Pacer Mohammed Shami and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja have been included in the squad for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin who had a good time in the series thus far.

India’s playing XI for the 4th ODI

Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (C), Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami