Hits and misses from India's squad for 3 T20Is against New Zealand

Hits and misses from India’s squad for 3 T20Is against New Zealand

(Cricket news) After the disappointing early exit from the T20 World Cup, India have named their first T20I squad of the Rohit-Dravid Era. India will take on New Zealand for 3 T20Is and 2 Tests and Virat Kohli has been rested for the T20Is and is also expected to miss the 1st Test.

India Squad for 3 T20Is against New Zealand:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj.

The squad has only 6 players who were in the T20I World Cup squad. Out of the players dropped Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have definitely been rested. There are question marks on whether Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur are rested or dropped due to their performance. Other dropped players include Varun Chakravarty, Hardik Pandya and Rahul Chahar.

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Out of the players in the squad only Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant actively play all three formats which means that they will be rested in upcoming tours. Venkatesh Iyer has been selected ahead of Hardik Pandya despite having 4 other openers in the squad. Iyer might be groomed to play in the middle order. His medium pace may come in very handy as he has been impressive with the ball in the Syed Musthaq Ali trophy.

IPL 2021 Purple cap and Orange cap winners Ruturaj Gaikwad and Harshal Patel have been given an opportunity with the blues. Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal and Deepak Chahar are back in the squad while Bhuvneshwar Kumar surprisingly keeps his place. India still don't have a left arm seamer in the squad. Arshdeep Singh would've been a good pick after good performances in the past 2 IPL seasons.

The 3 T20Is will be played in Jaipur, Ranchi and Kolkata on the 17th, 19th and 21st of November. With the bio Bubble fatigue coming into play, it will be interesting to see who New Zealand play and rest. Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme have already made themselves unavailable for the Test series but there has been no word on the T20Is.