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A total of five changes have been made to India’s current squad that will take on England in a five-match T20I series.
Ramandeep Singh along with four others have been dropped from the Indian squad. (Image: X)
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s 15-man squad for the upcoming 5-match T20I series against England on Saturday. The squad features most of the same members that were part of the T20I series against South Africa. But this time around, the Indian cricket board decided to make as many as five changes to the squad. A total of five changes have been made to the squad that previously travelled to South Africa for a four-match affair.
Suryakumar Yadav as expected will lead the T20I side but the BCCI’s release had surprisingly mentioned that Axar Patel will be the side’s vice-captain for the upcoming games.
Ahead of the start of the T20I series, here’s a look at changes in India’s T20I squad for the five-match affair against England from the last series played against South Africa:
In: Mohammed Shami, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Dhruv Jurel and Harshit Rana have been brought back to the Indian T20I squad for the upcoming England series.
Mohammed Shami has been out of action for more than a year when it comes to international cricket. The return of the veteran pacer will be welcomed by the Indian selectors who will make an assessment of his bowling and fitness for the upcoming Champions Trophy. So the 5-match T20I series will be a testing ground for the experienced campaigner to once again prove why he should be in India’s 50-over setup as well.
Sundar, Reddy, Jurel and Rana all had featured in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Sundar can be an ideal spin all-rounder option to have on the side along with Axar, but he has yet to prove himself in the shortest format. Reddy has been largely impressive with his batting during the Australian tour and his selection comes as no surprise considering he made his mark in the recently concluded IPL campaign, he could be India’s backup to Hardik Pandya in the future. Harshit Rana’s best form could be brought back in the T20I setup. He had a blistering campaign in the IPL for KKR and could be expected to bring back his best bowling form during the upcoming T20Is.
Out: The likes of Ramandeep Singh, Vijay Kumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal, Avesh Khan and Jitesh Sharma have been dropped from the T20I squad that is set to face England.
Ramandeep Singh had a fairly impressive T20I series against South Africa. Despite featuring in only two games, he featured for only two games where he came at number 7 and was expected to give some quick runs at the death. He can also chip in with the ball as he picked up one wicket in the final T20I against the Proteas.
Jitesh Sharma has not been in the best of form of late. Despite being included in the tour to South Africa, he did not get a game and was an unused option in the bench. He has not been in his best form which also saw him being released by the Punjab Kings. He will now hope that he can repay the faith shown by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru who paid Rs 11 Crore for his services and get back into the national team.
Avesh Khan also did not establish himself in the international circuit. His erratic lines and lengths make him prone to being hit for big runs, which is the likely reason for his drop from the national side. He will hope that he can bounce back to his best form in the domestic circuit and the upcoming IPL season to prove why he can be a reliable wicket-taking option.
The duo of Vijay Kumar Vyshak and Yash Dayal remained unused for the South African tour and may have not put in enough performances to warrant a recall to the Indian squad. But the pair are certainly ones to watch out for should they have an impressive outing in the upcoming IPL.
India’s squad for T20I series against England: Suryakumar 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)
