India announces squad for New Zealand, Bangladesh tours

KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been rested for the New Zealand tour, which will start on November 30. While Hardik Pandya will captain the T20 side in New Zealand, the ODI side will lead by Shikhar Dhawan.

Hardik Pandya will captain the T20 side in New Zealand tour. | Photo Credit: SAEED KHAN

Hardik Pandya will lead India’s T20I squad for the next month’s short series in New Zealand while Ravindra Jadeja will return for the tour to Bangladesh in December if he clears fitness test.

While the selectors have rested all the seniors for the limited overs’ tour to New Zealand, set to begin less than a week after the ongoing T20 World Cup final, Shikhar Dhawan will continue to lead the ODI side in New Zealand.

Hanuma Vihari has been dropped from the Test squad, with Cheteshwar Pujara, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill set to join Virat Kohli in India’s middle order, while Ravi Bishnoi has been omitted from the limited overs’ squads.

Washington Sundar has been recalled in the limited overs’ squads while fast bowler Kuldeep Sen has earned a maiden call-up for the ODI series in Bangladesh. Umran Malik also featured in T20I and ODI squads.

Chief selector Chetan Sharma, after what is likely to be the last selection meeting of the existing committee, announced the squads for the tours to New Zealand and Bangladesh. Sharma stressed that none of the seniors have asked to be rested for the New Zealand tour.

“No one asked for rest. The selection committee based on discussions with the team management and medical team decides how to manage workload for every player,” Sharma said from Adelaide in a virtual interaction.

Test squad for Bangladesh series: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav.

ODI squad for Bangladesh series: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, W Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Yash Dayal

ODI squad for New Zealand series: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik.

T20I squad for New Zealand series: Hardik Pandya (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik

The itinerary:

In New Zealand

T20Is: Nov. 18 (Wellington), Nov. 20 (Mount Maunganui), Nov. 22 (Napier). ODIs: Nov. 25 (Auckland), Nov. 27 (Hamilton), Nov. 30 (Christchurch).

In Bangladesh

ODIs: Dec. 4, Dec. 7, Dec. 10 (Mirpur) Tests: Dec. 14-18 (Chattogram), Dec. 22-26 (Mirpur).