(Cricket news) India have announced the squad for the 3 ODIs against New Zealand. The series is extremely important for the preparation leading up to the World Cup later this year. The squad is missing a few players due to various reasons but it is still a pretty strong team. India still have to search for a few answers in this series and a couple of players have to prove themselves. The 3 ODIs will be played in Hyderabad, Raipur and Indore. New Zealand are coming into the series in excellent form having won an ODI series in Pakistan.

India’s squad:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik

KL Rahul and Axar Patel are not available due to family issues. KS Bharat gets his maiden ODI call-up but Ishan Kishan is likely to be the one to keep wickets. Shahbaz Ahmed is also back and he will be the 2nd choice spin bowling all-rounder behind Washington Sundar. Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah are still not fit enough. Arshdeep Singh has surprisingly been dropped from the squad. He hasn’t played the first 2 ODIs against Sri Lanka but could play the 3rd. Shardul Thakur returns to the squad after having done well in ODIs in recent times.

Also read: India announce squad for first 2 Tests against Australia