'Dhoni's experience will be missed' – Sharma

MS Dhoni has long been a stalwart of India's limited overs sides, but in the wake of his declining form, he has been left out of the Twenty20 International squads to take on Windies and Australia.

Having played over 90 matches in the shortest format for India, it goes without saying that Dhoni brought with him a wealth of experience. But his exclusion now offers an opportunity not only for young Rishabh Pant but also for the more senior Dinesh Karthik to cement their places in the team.

"Dhoni has been such a massive player for us, over the years. His experience in the middle will be missed but again Rishabh (Pant) and Dinesh (Karthik) have great opportunity to come and perform and show what they are capable of as well. It gives them an opportunity to express themselves," Sharma said ahead of the first of three T20Is against the Windies.

The series also offers India another opportunity to test candidates and combinations with an eye on the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. India, who are ranked No.2 in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings, have a group of fine performers, and the team is now focussed on improving the bench strength as the selections of uncapped Shahbaz Nadeem and Krunal Pandya indicate.

"We cannot go into the World Cup with limited resources. We need to have options. This gives you a great platform to try and test all these guys," Sharma said.

"Not just the 15 players we got to see what is outside the 15 players we have. There are a lot of new faces in the team.

"Shahbaz Nadeem has come in the team for the first time, Krunal (Pandya) was part of the team but didn't play any games. These are the few names who have come and we got to see them what they have in their armoury for us to make the best possible squad in the World Cup."