By Chanakya Ch
The Board of Cricket Control of India ( BCCI ) have announced a 15-member squad for a 5-match T20I series against England which is going to be held from 22nd January to 2nd February. The highlight of the T20I squad is the return of pacer Mohammed Shami into international cricket after 14 months.
The defending T20 World Cup Champions face their old-time rivals England in a 5-match T20I series being held at Kolkata, Chennai, Rajkot, Pune and Mumbai respectively. Nitish Kumar Reddy who has impressed everyone with his exceptional all-rounder skills against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar test series makes his way into the T20I squad. With the retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja from T20’s, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma fill in their spots.
The spotlight of the T20I squad came in return of Mohammed Shami into international cricket after 14 months. Shami who had undergone a surgery on his Achilles was deemed fit and made his way into the T20I squad. Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal have missed out. The in-form Sanju Samson makes his way into the squad while Dhruv Jurel was selected as a back-up keeper. With Surya Kumar Yadav as a captain, the slow left-arm orthodox spinner Axar Patel is all set to be vice-captain of the team. This is the 5th time that Axar Patel was given the position of Vice-captain. Varun Chakravarthy, Harshith Rana have also earned their spots in the squad. Hardik Pandya who was part of the T20 world cup squad also makes his way into the team. Rishabh Pant who was bought for a whooping 26.75 crores by Lucknow Super Giants in IPL to miss the T20 series. Jitesh Sharma, Avesh Khan, Ramandeep SIngh, Yash Dayal who were part of the T20-World Cup Team missed to earn their spot in the squad. This series will be followed by 3 matches – ODI series in Nagpur,Cuttack and Ahmedabad respectively. The squad is yet to come out.
Squad (T20’s) : Surya Kumar Yadav (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk)