MARTINSVILLE, Ind. – Veteran dirt late model driver Don O’Neal is returning to competition after recovering from knee surgery.

O’Neal, the driver of the No. 5 entry for Clint Bowyer Racing in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, underwent surgery in June to correct an injury suffered in an off-track incident at South Carolina’s Cherokee Speedway.

Following an extensive rehabilitation process, O’Neal has been cleared to compete and will return to the No. 5 entry this weekend for a trio of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at Kentucky’s Ponderosa Speedway, Ohio’s Portsmouth Raceway Park and West Virginia’s Tyler County Speedway.

While O’Neal was recovering from surgery, Pennsylvania late model driver Michael Norris took over the reigns of No. 5 entry for Clint Bowyer Racing.

GREAT NEWS!! Dr cleared Me to race this weekend!Couldn’t be more excited to get back in that @Asgrow_DEKALB @ihearttraeger #5.Many thanks to @TheCrusherKid for filling my seat for me. Your a great young man &It definitely won’t be the last time you see this kid in a top series ?

— Don O’Neal (@DonONeal5) August 28, 2019

COSTA MESA, Calif. – MotoAmerica will travel to the Pacific Northwest for the first time next year to compete at Ridge Motorsports Park near Seattle, Wash., on June 26-28.

The rest of the provisional 2020 MotoAmerica schedule in the near future.

Ridge Motorsports Park was designed by Steve Crawford, the man who also designed Thunderhill Raceway Park in Northern California. It’s nestled in a picturesque portion of Washington State with views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. The circuit blends with its surroundings and features 16 turns with more than 300 feet of elevation, including a 50-foot plunge down the Ridge Complex. The track opened in 2011 but has recently undergone upgrades to allow it to host large spectator events, such as MotoAmerica.

The track is centrally located in Shelton, Wash., roughly 90 miles from Seattle, 140 miles from Portland, Ore., and 60 miles from Tacoma, Wash., in Mason County. Having a round at The Ridge will also please MotoAmerica’s Canadian fans as it is just a four-hour drive down the I-5 from Vancouver, British Columbia.

“We’re excited to be taking the MotoAmerica Series to the Pacific Northwest next year,” said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey. “We know we have a lot of fans up there who haven’t had the chance to see Superbike racing up close in a long, long time. This is going to be a great event and Tracie Schmitt and the staff at the Ridge Motorsports Park have welcomed us with open arms and are as excited as we are that we are going to be racing at their track. We know our riders, teams and fans will enjoy the circuit and the surrounding area. Riders always like the challenge of a new circuit and the layout looks to have very fast and technical sections that will be exciting for them to race on. It’s a beautiful place and it promises to have great racing. We can’t wait to get there in June.”

“This is a big moment not only for Ridge Motorsports Park, but for the Shelton, Washington, community,” said Tracie Schmitt, the general manager of Ridge Motorsports Park. “MotoAmerica will be the first nationally televised event for this young facility and the first nationally televised road course event that’s been held in Washington state in decades. We are proud of the relationship we’ve built with the MotoAmerica team. To finally make the announcement of the MotoAmerica Komatsu Superbike Championship at Ridge Motorsports Park is an exciting moment for everyone involved.”

Ridge Motorsports Park has been undergoing constant improvement and a grand opening of its 9,800-square-foot Performance Center is scheduled for September. Additionally, a spectator bridge will be constructed, among other on-going projects prior to MotoAmerica’s event in June of next year.

“Expansion projects to support the growth of the facility and the MotoAmerica Komatsu Superbike Championship at Ridge Motorsports Park have been strategically scheduled to ensure a successful completion before the June 26-28 event,” Schmitt said. “Pit entrance will be extended to provide additional track surface supporting the transition from turn 15 to 16; design has been completed to add another creative element to the already nationally recognized 2.47-mile road course; 100,000 square feet of paddock space will be added to tie in the current paddock to the pedestrian bridge; and a newly designed facility entrance is planned and the final highlight will include the new grandstands being installed to create the extreme fan experience from each viewpoint on the property. The recent teaser announcement of Ridge Motorsports Park being added to the already successful MotoAmerica schedule, has had an overwhelming response from the fans. This is going to be a great event.”

SOUTHLAKE, Texas – Two NASCAR champions – Todd Bodine and Johnny Benson – have filed entries for Sportscar Vintage Racing Ass’n’s Vintage Race of Champions Charity Pro-Am presented by Chopard Watch at Virginia Int’l Raceway.

The Sept. 21 Charity Pro-Am is the deciding round of the VROC series. Previously announced NASCAR stars entering the race are Bobby Labonte, Mike Skinner and Wally Dallenbach Jr.

“Both of these two champions first raced with SVRA last year at VIR,” said SVRA CEO Tony Parella. “They also joined us in our Charity Pro-Am earlier this month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They are terrific race car drivers and we are honored to have them racing with us.”

Benson has 18 NASCAR victories with one in Cup, three in Xfinity and 14 in Trucks. He earned Xfinity and Truck championships in 1995 and ’08, respectively. Benson is one of 37 drivers to have won a race in all three of NASCAR’s major series – Cup, Xfinity and Trucks. Three drivers have won championships in Xfinity and Trucks – Benson, Greg Biffle and Austin Dillon.

Early in his career, Benson also scored an American Speed Ass’n championship in 1993. As a result of his success, Benson represented the Xfinity series in the 1996 IROC invitational, finishing third in the season standings. Early in his career, he also scored an American Speed Ass’n championship in 1993. He was ASA’s top rookie in 1990, and also won the same honor after stepping up to the Cup series in 1996.

Bodine earned 37 NASCAR wins, with 22 in Trucks and 15 more in the Xfinity Series. He won the Truck series championship in 2006 and again in 2010. In a NASCAR career that extends back to a single Xfinity Series race in 1986, Bodine has amassed, in addition to race wins, 21 top 10s and five poles in Cup competition, 160 top 10s and seven poles in Xfinity, and 124 top 10s and seven poles in Truck competition.

Currently, Bodine is a NASCAR analyst for FOX Sports. He ranks fourth in the VROC point standings and is in the hunt for the A Production championship, trailing leader Willy T. Ribbs by three points.

Women in racing aren’t anything new. In fact, it’s very old news. Camille du Gast, a French woman, was the first at the wheel in the early 1900s.

Today, Heinricher Racing fields Acuras in IMSA’s GT Daytona class for an all-female driving team with big-money sponsorship from Caterpillar.

Katherine Legge has been a top-tier driver for years, always just a heartbeat away from a big breakthrough. She’s more than held her own in IndyCar and IMSA, driving the Panoz Delta Wing before signing up to drive one of Michael Shank’s Acura NSX race cars.

“Racing is never easy,” Legge is quick to say. “Once you’re able to drive for one of the top teams and you’re able to see what everybody in the paddock has to go through. Everyone has a struggle to some extent, that’s what makes it worthwhile to get through (those struggles).”

For Legge, it was anything but easy in 2018. She drove like there was no tomorrow because there wasn’t. She had to get the job done at every race to make it to the next.

“Last year was tricky because we didn’t know if we were going to run the whole season,” Legge said. “We didn’t know if we were going to have the funding. We needed good results and we were in the championship hunt. We were able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and we got some help from Acura and we got down to racing.”

Legge’s grit and indefatigable spirit earned a permanent spot on Shank’s squad.

Then, Legge had a “what if” moment. What if there could be an all-female IMSA team? She formed a relationship with Jackie Heinricher, another driver running the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series. It was a star-crossed coming together.

“I had been talking to Jackie (Heinricher) for over a year,” Legge recalled. “When I met with her she told me her vision. We had the same ideas, the same drivers we wanted to use. We could only do it if we could get those drivers. My luck and her luck meshed and we took it to Mike (Shank) and asked him if he would be interested in helping us with the team side. He said, ‘Absolutely, it’s a great idea.’

“He believed in me, he believed in us and we could make a difference. Yeah, this is really Jackie’s baby. She pulled off something that a lot of people in racing have been trying to do for a very long time. And she found a major national sponsor and I’m really proud of her for doing that.”

Shank is all in.

“She (Legge) brought it to me,” Shank explained. “She had driver coached Jackie (Heinricher) a few years ago and knew her from that. Katherine just basically put the left and the right together. It took us about eight months to get the deal done. I think the deal is great, pretty unprecedented. It was super, super hard to put together and I’ll give that to Jackie for getting the deal done.”

Veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy is retiring from the NHL after an 11-year career, announcing his decision on NHL Network on Wednesday night.

Lovejoy, 35, was a Stanley Cup winner in 2016 during his second stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins, with whom he began his career.

In December 2017, he became the first active NHL player to announce he was donating his brain to concussion research.

A defense-first player who excelled on the penalty kill throughout his career, Lovejoy finished last season with the Dallas Stars following a trade-deadline deal with the New Jersey Devils. He also played in parts of three seasons for the Anaheim Ducks.

He retires with 20 goals and 81 assists in 544 career games.

Show me someone in the sports media who is criticizing fans, and you're undoubtedly showing me someone who has forgotten what it's like to be one.

I was reminded of this when Indianapolis Colts fans were called "just too stupid to breathe the same air we breathe" for booing their franchise quarterback off the field within hours of finding out that he was removing himself from the franchise.

After hearing Andrew Luck's lament about how injuries and pain have sapped his love for the game, one hopes that these fans wouldn't do that again if given the chance. But in the moment? C'mon, that's the reaction you'd reasonably expect from people paying thousands of dollars to consume pro sports, which are essentially a vessel for emotional expenditure and an outlet for otherwise irrational reactions.

So I get it. Or, at least, I make every effort to get it.

Every NHL season, I make it a point to buy tickets to watch some games from the seats. I think it's important. We're blessed as sportswriters to have free access to the arena with (usually) good seats and free food and (depending on the venue) free parking and an elevator for our exclusive use and a bathroom that doesn't have a line of tipsy patrons out the door between periods. I think it's important to reconnect with your inner fan and consume the game experience without professional obligations -- which, admittedly, creates the opportunity for a more varied selection of beverages -- while experiencing the economic realities of being a fan in 2019.

Attending an NHL game is an expensive proposition. SeatGeek reported in 2018 (via the Seattle Times) that the average NHL ticket on its secondary market platform sold for $91, which was more than that of the NBA ($88) and MLB ($45) but far behind that of the NFL ($166).

Ask a hockey fan what they would change about the game-going experience, and there are two primary responses: lower ticket prices, which won't happen unless there's a downturn for either a team's fortunes or the economy, and lowering the volume of ... everything.

"Everyone I know who attends games thinks the music is too loud. I agree," said (ironically named, in context) Gary Yellen, a Carolina Hurricanes fan. "I know it might be 'a thing' to pump up the music to try to get a high-energy experience. However, we would like to be able to talk to the person we are with, and the music makes that impossible.

Ask fans if they like the music the way it is, whether they would [want] it louder or lower, and most would say lower. I would guess that the overwhelming majority would like the volume turned down."

I'd like to turn up the volume on a few suggestions to make the NHL arena experience better, some submitted by readers and some that have been knocking around my noggin since last season. Here are six ways to transform the in-arena experience in the NHL:

Sensory-sensitive nights

The sensory overload of the arena experience can be exhilarating, such as when the lights are flashing and the music is matching the volume of the fans in a climactic moment. But not for everyone.

"The in-arena sound is entirely too much. A constant wall of noise. It hurts, physically and mentally," said Jen Conway, whom you might know as the indispensable @NHLHistoryGirl on Twitter. "The worst are those that flash lights into the crowd or that strobe. Anyone with any sort of light-related sensory or neurological issue gets to sit through torture. No one wants to go to a hockey game only to flee the pregame or, worse, be trapped and forced to sit through it, affecting them negatively for the rest of the night."

To their credit, some teams are cognizant of this. The Cleveland Cavaliers were trailblazers in providing "sensory inclusive" kits that included headphones, sunglasses, weighted blankets and other items. The Vegas Golden Knights began offering kits at T-Mobile Arena for home games last season.

That's a great start, but the NHL should take a page from the minor leagues for its next step. Last season, the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones held a sensory-friendly night in partnership with Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Some of the changes: no goal horns, decreased volume on music, no strobe lights and sensory kits available.

Dedicating one home game to this audience, in this manner, could be meaningful for fans and families who might not otherwise attend games. It would also be a hit with those fans who wouldn't mind having the volume turned down.

Rethinking ticket plans

As for the other oft-mentioned problem with the arena experience, we like this concept used in the Canadian Football League and suggested by reader Luke Gibbons.

The Ottawa RedBlacks have something called the "Lumber Pass" that retails for $300 and covers all home games. (There are nine in the regular season.) How it works: You have a ticket for the game, but you don't have a seat for the game until game day. Then one is assigned to you based on availability and sent to your email. In theory, you could end up with a seat at a higher price point than the average of your "season-ticket" plan, or you could end up in the cheap seats that cost about what you're paying on average.

Obviously, the price of this ticket plan would be much higher for 41 NHL home games. And it might not work in every market, as 500-1,000 "floating" seats per game wouldn't make sense if you're near capacity every night.

But for those markets in which you buy the back rows of the upper deck just to move down to a seemingly empty row later in the game, this plan would officially grant you those better seats -- and eliminate awkward moments when some late-arriving fans chase you from them.

(In short: Please don't sit in my seats. It ruins my whole night when I arrive and someone's splayed out in my chair who knows they don't belong there. Scram.)

No-stakes 'gambling'

As long as we're lifting ideas from other sports, how about this one from the Los Angeles Rams?

Starting this season, the Super Bowl participation trophy winners have something called the "Rams Pick' Em," in which fans predict things such as the outcome of the game, the kickoff, the opening drive and the like. Successful predictions can net fans prizes such as Rams tickets and autographed footballs, depending how many points they accumulate during the season.

The next generation of this innovation: What about winning points during games that could then be applied as discounts inside the arena? Earn enough points in the first period, get yourself $5 off at the team shop in the intermission?

This sounds like a fun way to keep fans engaged and shave a few dollars from the price of popcorn. Plus, it'll be good training for when sports wagering is legalized and fans are betting on this stuff anyway.

Granted, this assumes that arena Wi-Fi can handle all of this usage, which is an entirely different discussion.

Better fan connectivity

While we're talking about the in-arena mobile experience, many fans we interacted with were asking why there isn't a catch-all app to enhance the game.

With a code on your ticket, you could get access to play-by-play feeds, instant-replay feeds, camera feeds that focus on specific players or parts of the ice and game announcements. Never again will you struggle to hear what the referee mumbled into his mic after a coach's challenge; the explanation will be delivered to your phone!

As a regular patron of Comic-Cons, I can say that the relationship between fans and the venue is greatly enhanced by the dedicated mobile app, which features a constant feed of information throughout the event. Heck, bring a little Disneyland into it: Tell me which concession stands have the longest wait time. Maybe you'll persuade me to buy that dodgy sushi in the upper concourse if I'm impatient enough!

More focus on the players

"Be more like the NBA" is always a tricky proposition for the NHL when it comes to marketing stars. They're inherently different sports. I mean, it's lot easier to have Kawhi Leonard's star shine when he isn't hopping off the court every 55 seconds for a breather.

But there is a way the NHL can put more of an emphasis on star power in an NBA-esque way during games, and that's in the player introductions. Why not have the starters skate out individually? Why not make the starting lineups a bigger deal, with some smoke and pyro and other WWE-adjacent stuff? Why not put the spotlight on the scheduled shooters for each team when the game hits the shootout?

True, this would fly in the face of the "logo on the front, not the name on the back" culture in the NHL, and maybe the players wouldn't be down with this kind of showmanship. Or maybe that's a generational thing and the younger stars in the league would very much accept this kind of hype.

The bottom line is that the arena experience would be enhanced with a little more personality and star power emanating from the ice to the stands.

Finally, police the stands

"Silver" is a young female fan who grew up going to NHL games.

"I've seen ugly," she said. "I have experienced sexual harassment at games."

She's one of many fans who told us they'd like to see more vigilant policing of abusive and repulsive behavior in the stands. There have been incidents that were dealt with swiftly, such as when the Chicago Blackhawks ejected fans who racially taunted then-Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly near the penalty box. The team said, "We are committed to providing an inclusive environment for everyone who attends our games, and these actions will never be tolerated."

Fans we heard from want the same kind of consideration.

"There should be a service to be able to move your seat midgame or remove the person harassing you. Like, basically add some human decency," Silver said.

We heard from a lot of fans who appreciate attempts at inclusiveness (such as Pride Nights) but want to see more action taken on typical game nights to let all fans know that they're welcome.

Because when it comes to all of these suggestions, that's the whole game: giving folks a variety of reasons to attend, and enjoy, an NHL game -- and then come back.

The Week in Gritty

There were a couple of news items about the tangerine Cthulhu worth sharing this week. The first concerned the birth of Gavin James Giroux to Claude and Ryanne, a blessed event commented on by Uncle Gritty:

Glad he didn't get Uncle Gritty's eyes https://t.co/JNtBUa1TNQ

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) August 28, 2019

I mean, his eyes are closed, so it's a bit of an assumption at this point, no?

The other Gritty news is, sadly, about the Philadelphia Flyers mascot taking an 'L' at the annual mascot conference:

Congratulations to our favorite fowl, @BhawkTommyHawk, on being voted the @NHL's Mascot of the Year by his fellow mascots!

We're glad your peers love you as much as we do ? pic.twitter.com/iFynlXi8Aq

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) August 26, 2019

Yes, Tommy Hawk, previously seen fighting with a fan on the concourse at the United Center last December, won "mascot of the year" over Gritty, who in the span of said year became the googly-eyed face of the NHL.

Maybe this is some sort of rookie mascot hazing? Or maybe it's just really hard to win an award from your peers when they keep accusing you of lifting their comedy bits.

Wing Bowl

The Stanley Cup is famous as a vessel for all manner and sort of food and beverages (to be consumed by humans, dogs, horses and Tom Wilson). But it's not the only hockey championship trophy to serve as a serving bowl.

Forward Andrew Poturalski won the Calder Cup with the AHL's Charlotte Checkers last spring, and the Buffalo native spent his day with the Cup as a Buffalo native should: with copious amounts of chicken wings, courtesy of Bar Bill Tavern in East Aurora.

Poturalski was also the winner of the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy for playoff MVP. As luck would have it, it was also a bowl-shaped award. Two bowls and a bunch of wings. What's a western New Yorker to do?

Turns out the Calder Cup and the MVP trophy make some pretty good buffalo wings ? #WhenInBuffalo pic.twitter.com/qi3dCo3hIw

— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) August 27, 2019

Championship Buffalo wings. That's what it's all about, kids.

Jersey Foul

From Mr. Fjormes comes this California confusion:

Check out this jersey foul @wyshynski. Sharks logo with Ducks colours... pic.twitter.com/aRxec3wpQb

— Mr. Fjormes (@joelthesakic) August 20, 2019

You may have to click the photo for clarification, but yes, that's a San Jose Sharks logo on a classic jade-and-eggplant Mighty Ducks of Anaheim jersey. Whenever we come across something like this, our default explanation is always "abandoned beer league jersey," but we're also willing to entertain the idea that this is a relic from some misguided Teemu Selanne cosplay. In any case, that's fowl, er, foul.

Listen to ESPN On Ice

The full season archive of our podcast can be found on iTunes. So grab yourself a fresh beverage and listen to two people who have had it up to here with playoff officiating.

Puck headlines

Evander Kane calls out racism on Instagram.

Looking at the Minnesota Wild and whether they have a prayer of getting a wild card.

What about those Dallas Stars and the playoffs?

A Title IX loss for the former University of North Dakota women's hockey team.

When are we going to see the next batch of special game jerseys in the NHL?

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid aren't exactly lifting the spirits of skeptical Edmonton Oilers fans.

Nick Kypreos, Doug MacLean and John Shannon are out at Sportsnet.

Katie Baker gets some hockey angles into her Andrew Luck coverage.

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Some words of caution about stats and player tracking from Justin Bourne. ($)

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

An absolutely fantastic story from Emily Kaplan on how Jacob Trouba balances his career ambitions with those of his fiancée, Kelly Tyson.

The draw for the Champions League group stages will take place on Thursday, Aug. 29 in Monaco and is expected to begin at noon ET / 4 p.m. GMT.

Teams will appear below. Please refresh the page to see the latest content.

GROUP A:
GROUP B:
GROUP C:
GROUP D:
GROUP E:
GROUP F:
GROUP G:
GROUP H:

Follow the draw LIVE with ESPN here.

11.45 ET: Welcome to the coverage of today's live draw.

Holders Liverpool will join Europa League winners Chelsea among the eight seeds, along with Barcelona (La Liga), Manchester City (Premier League), Juventus (Serie A), Bayern Munich (Bundesliga), Paris Saint-Germain (Ligue 1), Zenit Saint-Petersburg (Russian Premier).

Meanwhile, Pot 2 includes Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk, Ajax and Benfica.

Continuing down the line, Pots 3 contains Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Olympiakos, Club Brugge, Valencia, Inter Milan and Dinamo Zagreb.

Finally, Pot 4 features Lokomotiv Moscow, Genk, Galatasaray, RB Leipzig, Slavia Prague, Red Star Belgrade, Atalanta and last but not least, Lille.

One team from each pot will be drawn into a group, making eight groups of four clubs.

In addition to the 2019-20 Champions League draw, the winners of the UEFA Men's Player of the Year, UEFA Women's Player of the Year and top goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward awards of the 2018-19 UCL season will be announced this evening in Monaco. With all that said... let's begin!

12:00 ET: That sweet intro music means only one thing... it's time for the Champions League. But before the matches of the Champions League proper begin on Sept. 7, we must first find out where and who each of the 32 remaining clubs will be playing. Welcome to the Champions League Draw and Award Show from Monaco!

India men's allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and women's wristspinner Poonam Yadav were presented with the Arjuna Award, an honour bestowed by the Indian government to recognise outstanding individual achievement in sports.

While Jadeja, currently on tour in the Caribbean, wasn't there to receive the award in person, Poonam received hers from the president of the country, on Thursday, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi.

Jadeja, 30, and Poonam, 28, were among four cricketers - Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah being the others - recommended for the award by the BCCI in April. They were the only cricketers among the pool of 19 athletes to receive the award this year.

Poonam Yadav receiving #ArjunaAward at National Sports Awards Function 2019.
Such a proud moment

Congratulations @poonam_yadav24!
Credits @ddsportschannel pic.twitter.com/CB2gAEgN4c

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 29, 2019

Currently on tour in the Caribbean, Jadeja occupies the fourth place on the ICC rankings for Test allrounders. He also struck a half-century and picked two wickets in India's 318-run victory against West Indies and during the World Cup last month, he almost carried India to the final with a flamboyant 59-ball 79 against New Zealand.

Poonam, meanwhile, is India's leading wicket-taker in T20Is and is ranked No. 2 by the ICC. She was the world's T20I leading bowler last year with 35 wickets in 25 innings at an average of 14.91 and strike rate of 15.4, including a career-best 4 for 9 in the final of the Asia Cup, which India last off the last ball.

Earlier this year, she was promoted to BCCI's Grade A contracts list, having been part of the Indian sides that finished runners-up in the 2017 ODI World Cup in England and the T20 World Cup in November last year.

Jadeja is the latest Arjuna Awardee among an elite list of former and current men's cricketers that include Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Virat Kohli among others.

Poonam, meanwhile, is the third India women's cricketer - and 11th overall since 1976 - to win the award, following T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur and opener Smriti Mandhana.

Hardik Pandya is back in India's 15-man T20I squad that will play three matches against South Africa starting September 15. His addition, in place of fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, is the only change India have made from the squad that won the T20Is against West Indies.

MS Dhoni continues to be absent from the T20I squad, and so does Jasprit Bumrah, who was rested from India's white-ball leg of the Caribbean tour.

The absence of Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah means that India have an inexperienced fast-bowling line-up that includes only 11 T20Is between the trio of Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar and Khaleel Ahmed. Among the spin options, India have named left-arm spinning allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Krunal Pandya, offspinner Washington Sundar and legbreak bowler Rahul Chahar.

Hardik was rested from the tour of the Caribbean from all three formats, after a long season that included tours of Australia and New Zealand followed by the Indian Premier League and the Men's World Cup. Hardik's workload management had been a concern for the team ever since he picked up a stress-fracture injury at the Asia Cup last year and the lower-back stiffness that forced him to miss the ODIs against Australia at home in March.

Among the batsmen, Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer keep their spots along with KL Rahul. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and the captain Virat Kohli complete the squad.

India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini