New Delhi: Hanuma Vihari, a middle order hitter who was formerly a fixture in the Indian Test team, would not be competing with the team on the West Indies Tour. The 29-year-old Vihari, known for his determined play, has taken part in 16 Test matches.

In July 2022, he played his final game for India against England in only one Test in Birmingham. Vihari has not been included in the Test team since that time. He is now talking about being dropped.

"Definitely, there was disappointment," Vihari told.

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"I didn't find a reason why I was dropped and it was the only thing that was bothering me. Nobody really contacted me and told me the reasons why I was dropped. It took some time and I have gone through ups and downs and I'm not worried about it now. I've put aside my personal side of things and I don't take too much stress about whether I'm in the Indian team or not. There are other matches to win and it is about winning the trophies."

In the meantime, India captain Rohit Sharma announced that he will be playing with a different opening partner in the first Test of the two-game series against the West Indies, which gets underway on Wednesday in Dominica. In their opening match of the ICC World Test Championship 2023–25 cycle, India will go with a different opening lineup, with the left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal, age 21, likely to join the skipper.

With 625 runs scored in the 2023 IPL at an average of 48 and a strike rate of 163.61, Jaiswal had a great year of white-ball cricket. He also averaged over 80 in his first 26 First Class innings. Jaiswal had a strong year playing red-ball cricket as well, scoring 265 in the Duleep Trophy Final's second innings.

According to the India captain, Rohit's current partner Shubman Gill would drop to No. 3 to cover the spot left by Cheteshwar Pujara, who was not chosen for this series.

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"Gill will play at number 3 because Gill himself wants to play at number 3," Rohit said in a pre-match press conference ahead of the first Test on Wednesday.

"He discussed with Rahul (Dravid) that I have played all my cricket at 3 and 4. I think I can do better for my team if I bat at number 3. And it is good for us too because it becomes an opening combination of left and right," said the India skipper.

"So I think we will try to do this and hopefully this will go on for a long time. Because we have been looking for a left-hander for many years. So now that we have got that left-hander, let's hope he performs well for the team. And he can really make that spot his own," Rohit added.

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