Rahul Tewatia, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan earned their maiden international call-ups, with the trio being named in the India squad for the five-match T20 series against England.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy, meanwhile, received a second chance to make a mark. Chakravarthy had received his maiden call-up when he was named in the T20 squad for the tour of Australia last year, but he couldn’t make the trip due to a shoulder injury.
Tewatia shot to fame in IPL 2020, when his 31-ball 53 helped Rajasthan Royals chase a mammoth 224-run target set by Kings XI Punjab. The 27-year-old is also a handy leg-spinner.
Suryakumar, who has consistently scored big runs for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and for Mumbai in domestic cricket, finally gets his big break.
Like Suryakumar, wicketkeeper-batsman Kishan played a key role in Mumbai Indians’ title run. The explosive Jharkhand southpaw scored 516 runs, at a strike rate of 145.76, to finish as the tournament’s fifth highest run-scorer.
With regular ‘keeper Rishabh Pant likely to keep his place behind the stumps, the Indian team management could use Kishan as a pure batsman.
Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been rested. Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who missed a significant part of the IPL due to a thigh injury, returns to the national team. Bhuvneshwar last played for India in a T20 series against West Indies in December 2019.
Manish Pandey and Ravindra Jadeja, Sanju Samson and Mayank Agarwal - all part of the T20 squad that toured Australia - have missed out. Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has also not been picked.
All the five T20 matches will be held at Ahmedabad. The matches will be held on March 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20.
The squad:
Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), K.L. Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, T. Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
