The BCCI have announced the T20I squad for New Zealand series beginning 17 November, leaving out quite a few senior players and handing over the captaincy to Rohit Sharma after Virat Kohli's stint ended with the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Rohit Sharma will lead the side with KL Rahul as his deputy. However, there is no clarity yet about whether Rohit and Rahul are taking up the roles permanently.
KKR's Venkatesh Iyer has been called up for the squad for the first time while other uncapped players in the mix are Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who won the Orange cap in IPL 2021, finds a place too after making his debut during the Sri Lanka tour.
R Ashwin, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Ishan Kishan who were all part of the 2021 T20 World Cup are part of the 16-man squad as is Shreyas Iyer, who was a reserve.
The selection committee have recalled Yuzvendra Chahal and there is no place for Rahul Chahar. Left arm spinner Axar Patel, who had been replaced in the WC squad in the weeks before the tournament has been brought back in for the series. Axar had been replaced by Shardul Thakur.
Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shardul, Ravindra Jadeja, and Hardik Pandya along with Virat Kohli have been left out. Also out of the squad is the mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who went wicketless over three World Cup games.
India will look to start building towards the next T20 World Cup in Australia after a disappointing performance in the UAE which saw them losing their opening two games to Pakistan and New Zealand. Despite winning their last three games handsomely, India failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
After the T20Is, India will play New Zealand in two Tests as well and the squad for that is expected to be picked later.
India Squad for New Zealand T20Is
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj
The BCCI also announced the India A squad for the South Africa tour scheduled to start from 23 November in Bloemfontein. The team will play three four-day matches during the tour.
Young pace bowling sensation Umran Malik has been included in the squad for South Africa.
India A:
Priyank Panchal (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Aparajith, Upendra Yadav (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Arzan Nagwaswalla
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