The All-India India senior selection committee has announced 16-member T20I and ODI squads for the tour of New Zealand next month. Eight changes have been made to the squads for both the white-ball formats.
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As expected, most of the senior players currently taking part in ICC T20 World Cup 2022 have been rested for New Zealand tour. Hence, the likes of regular captain Rohit Sharma, vice-captain KL Rahul, former captain Virat Kohli, wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik, all-rounder Axar Patel, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and fast bowler Mohammed Shami will return to India after the World Cup.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya will be leading India for the second time in the shortest format after tour of Ireland earlier this year. On the other hand, veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan will continue to lead the ODI squad. Wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant has been named as a designated vice-captain in both the squads.
Batters Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, wicket-keeper batters Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson, all-rounder Washington Sundar, spinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik have been added to the T20I squad. Irrespective of his recent superb ODI form, Gill receiving a maiden T20I call-up over a comeback for Prithvi Shaw is perplexing to say the least.
As far as the ODI squad is concerned, Kishan should consider himself unfortunate to miss out despite scoring a hard-hitting 93 (84) against South Africa in Ranchi earlier this month. Perhaps Pant’s presence as a middle-order keeper-batter has costed Kishan his ODI spot for this tour.
While Malik has been added to the ODI squad for the first time, he will be joined by another uncapped pacer in Kuldeep Sen. In what is the first-ever national call-up for the 26-year old player, him impressing in his maiden Indian Premier League season for Rajasthan Royals in spite of below par numbers has worked in his favour.
India squad for New Zealand series 2022
T20I squad – Hardik Pandya (c), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.
Kuldeep Sen!!! 🇮🇳
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) October 31, 2022
ODI squad – Shikhar Dhawan (c), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik.
