India in West Indies 2011

Replacement Indian openers high on agenda

India's selectors will meet on May 27 in Chennai to pick the squad for the Test series in West Indies in June and July. With shoulder injuries likely to rule out the regular openers, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, the primary talking point at the meeting will be their replacements. M Vijay and Parthiv Patel are favourites at the moment to be included in the 16-man squad, ESPNcricinfo has learnt.

Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan, who were all rested from the limited-overs leg of the West Indies tour, are likely to return for the Tests.

Vijay has opened for India in Tests, filling in for the regular openers when required. He scored his maiden Test ton against Australia in Bangalore last year. Parthiv has played only one Test since October 2004, but was used as a make-shift ODI opener in South Africa.

Yuvraj Singh has also improved his chances of making a Test comeback after his performances in the World Cup, where he scored 362 runs, took 15 wickets, and was the Player of the Tournament. He last played a Test in Sri Lanka in July 2010, after which he was dropped for the series against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Virat Kohli's recent form in limited-overs matches is also likely to attract the selectors' attention. In the previous 12 months Kohli has made 1107 runs in 31 ODIs with three centuries and seven fifties. In IPL 2011, he is only five runs behind his Bangalore team-mate, Chris Gayle, who is the tournament's top-scorer with 519 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who impressed with a half-century on Test debut against Australia and won a berth for the South Africa tour, is also likely to feature in the squad. Pujara sustained a knee injury during the IPL and missed a substantial part of Royal Challengers Bangalore's campaign, but is understood to have recovered now.

Squad (likely): MS Dhoni (captain & wk), M Vijay, Parthiv Patel (wk), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yuvraj Singh / Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli / S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel / Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav / Jaidev Unadkat, Pragyan Ojha