The BCCI has announced the squad for the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand. It hasn’t even been a day since Team India’s exit from the most critical T20 World Cup 2021. While we have yet to recover from Team India’s poor performance fully, we are looking forward to the next phase of India’s Cricket development.
Virat Kohli, as we all know, said before the World Cup that the 2021 T20 World Cup would be his final appearance as captain of Team India. It was also Ravi Shastri’s last assignment as Team India’s head coach. We are pleased to see Team India starting their path under new leadership, even though both exited with honour.
While former U19 Team India coach Rahul Dravid was named Head Coach of the Senior Team, Rohit Sharma was named Captain of Team India, as was predicted. Virat Kohli, who captained Team India for exactly 50 T20I matches, would hand over the reins to him. Meanwhile, for the New Zealand series, KL Rahul has been named as his deputy.
So, with Team India’s next assignment being a T20I series against New Zealand (NZ) in 2021, who is the official Team India squad? What have been the team’s adjustments, new arrivals, and omissions?
Let’s see what we can find out –
For the T20I series, Team India has named a 16-man roster. There are seven batsmen in all, including two wicketkeepers, two all-rounders, and seven bowlers. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj, and Yuzvendra Chahal are among the major new additions from the World Cup roster.
Ruturaj Gaikwad was recognised for his continuous performances in the IPL 2020, IPL 2021, and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, and Axar Patel were initially scheduled to play in the T20 World Cup but were added to the T20I series. Venkatesh Iyer, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, and Avesh Khan have been recognised for their outstanding IPL 2021. Yuzvendra Chahal, on the other hand, makes a surprise appearance after being left out of the T20 world cup squad.
Former skipper Virat Kohli has been rested from the T20I squad, as predicted, to manage his workload. He’ll most likely return for the Test Series. Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, and Virat Kohli rested from the squad to manage fatigue.
The spin combo of Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy has been pulled from the squad until these changes are made. Varun performed admirably in the three matches he played. Therefore the reason for this remains unknown. While Rahul Chahar, who has only played one game for India A, will now be seen in the whites against South Africa.
Meanwhile, here is Team India’s official squad, broken down by category.
Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav are the batsmen.
Axar Patel and Venkatesh Iyer are all-rounders.
Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Yuzvendra Chahal are the bowlers for the Indian team.
