India's Jasprit Bumrah, second left, celebrates with teammates the dismissal of Scotland's captain Kyle Coetzer, left, during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between India and Scotland in Dubai, UAE, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. (File) Rohit Sharma is all set to take over as the captain of the Indian T20I team from the upcoming series against New Zealand. The squad for the series was officially announced on Tuesday, with Virat Kohli, who has stepped down from T20I captaincy, being rested. Among the other notable exclusions are all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja as well as pacer Mohammed Shami.
With the squad announcement coming right after a dismal outing for Team India that saw them crash out of the T20 World Cup, there was much talk of infusion of new faces. In keeping with that sentiment and perhaps with an eye on the impending T20 World Cup in Australia next year, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Venkatesh Iyer, who have scored heavily in the IPL this year, have been brought in.
Iyer’s inclusion is important at a time when the Indian team have been hamstrung by Pandya’s inability to bowl in long spells and is looking to explore options with other fast-bowling all-rounders.
In other noteworthy inclusions, senior leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and pacer Mohammed Siraj return to the squad, with uncapped pacer Harshal Patel also getting included.
Rohit’s appointment was a formality and KL Rahul will be his new deputy in shortest format.
India are set to play 3 T20Is starting from 17th November.
NEWS – India’s squad for T20Is against New Zealand & India ‘A’ squad for South Africa tour announced.@ImRo45 named the T20I Captain for India.
More details here – https://t.co/lt1airxgZS #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/nqJFWhkuSB
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 9, 2021
The 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
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