Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami will return to the Indian T20I squad for the New Zealand tour, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Sunday (January 12).
Surprisingly, the selectors have not picked Sanju Samson in the 16-member squad with Rishabh Pant being the only wicketkeeper.
Virat Kohli will continue to lead the Men in Blue in the five-match T20Is series against the Black Caps. The 41-day-long tour will begin with the T20I series starting from January 24. Both sides will also play 3 ODIs and 2 Tests after the T20 leg.
The selection committee under outgoing chairman MSK Prasad kept the ODI and Test squads on hold for the time being.
“There are no surprises in the Indian T20I squad with Rohit, as usual, coming back in place of Sanju, who is already in New Zealand with the A-team. All the other players picked themselves,” a senior BCCI official privy to selection matters told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
It is believed that Hardik Pandya’s latest fitness drama could be the reason why the Test and the ODI squads were not announced.
A BCCI release mentioned that Hardik Pandya’s rehabilitation process is taking “longer than expected.”
India’s T20I squad for NZ tour:
Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur.
