BCCI name India squad for New Zealand T20Is, Rohit Sharma to lead

The Indian squad for the home T20I series against New Zealand have been announced by the BCCI. India and New Zealand are set to lock horns in three T20Is from March 17 -21. Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested from the series. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has been named the skipper of the side, while KL Rahul will take over the duties of vice-captain.

All-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who was added to the 20-20 World Cup squad as injury replacement has been retained, while spinners Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy have been ignored.

 Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Yuzvendra Chahal are the three specialist spinners. In terms of fast bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been retained from the 20-20 World Cup squad along with Deepak Chahar. Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan are other pacer bowling options. Shreyas Iyer has also returned to the team following a successful recovery from the shoulder injury.

The series gets underway on March 17 in Jaipur before the caravan moves to Ranchi for the second T20I on March 19. The final game will be played on March 21 in Kolkata.

The selection committee also picked the squad for India A tour of South Africa. The likes of Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Umran Malik, Navdeep Saini, Ishan Porel, will be part of the squad. The team will play three four day games on the tour.

India’s T20I squad: 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

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