India names squad for T20Is against New Zealand; Rohit Sharma captain, KL Rahul his deputy

Team India has announced the squad for the upcoming T20 Internationals for the three matches against New Zealand on Tuesday, with this marking the beginning of a new era under new full-time skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid. 

As mentioned earlier, several first-team players were likely to be rested for India vs New Zealand series given that they have been inside a bio-bubble for nearly 5 months now, starting with the tour to England, the IPL and the T20 World Cup.

While many members of the World cup squad found a place in the team, many key players including the likes of Virat Kohli, Jaspirt Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja were rested. The likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Avesh Khan and Venkatesh Iyer, who performed well during the recently concluded IPL and have continued their form into the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy have found a place. Shreyas Iyer too makes a comeback into the team after having spent some time on the sidelines recovering from an injury.

While many expected Shikhar Dhawan to be summoned back to the side, the selectors have opted to continue with Ishan Kishan and the selection of players like Venkatesh Iyer and Gaikwad, along with the availability of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma meaning there is no space for the inclusion of Dhawan in the top order.

India squad for NZ T20s

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 selectors also picked the India ‘A’ squad for the South Africa tour which will see the team play three four-day matches.  Gujarat's Priyank Panchal will lead the side which also boasts the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Rahul Chahar and Umran Malik among many others.

India ‘A’ squad for South Africa tour: 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

Image: AP