Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer and Hyderabad pacer Mohammed Siraj have received their maiden call-ups to the Indian Twenty20 team for the series against New Zealand starting next week, while M. Vijay has returned to the Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka to be played from November 16.
Soon after BCCI acting-secretary Amitabh Choudhary announced the squads for the T20Is against the Kiwis, the Board President’s XI team for the warm-up game against Sri Lankans and for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka, chief selector M.S.K. Prasad stressed that Shreyas and Siraj were rewarded for their prolific performances in domestic cricket, IPL and India-A set-ups.
“Shreyas Iyer has been prolific in all forms of the game, be it Test, ODI, T20, IPL. So we will stick with this policy: if we pick a player, we will give him an extended run, continue with him for some point, nurture him and see that he goes on to become successful. Siraj (also) is doing well and has been duly rewarded,” Prasad said.
Vijay’s wrist injury had resurfaced before the start of the Test series in Sri Lanka and it forced him to pull out. Having proven his fitness in the Ranji Trophy, the Tamil Nadu opener has made it to the squad for the first two Tests.
The squads:
T20I against New Zealand: Virat Kohli (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (vice-capt.), K.L. Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, M.S. Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra (only for first match)and Mohammed Siraj.
Board President’s XI for warm-up game against Sri Lankans: Naman Ojha (capt. and wk), Sanju Samson, Jiwanjot Singh, B. Sandeep, Tanmay Agarwal, Abhishek Gupta, Rohan Prem, Akash Bhandari, Jalaj Saxena, C.V. Milind, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier and M. Ravi Kiran.
First two Tests against Sri Lanka: Virat Kohli (capt.), K.L. Rahul, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt.), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma.
