(Cricket news) The BCCI have gone ahead and announced the Indian men's squad for the New Zealand and Bangladesh tours. The men's team will travel to New Zealand straight after the T20 World Cup to play 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs. The T20I series starts on 18th November while the ODI series starts on 25th November. It is a little surprising that the BCCI has named all the 4 squads together and haven't even waited for the T20 World Cup's Super 12 stage to be completed. The T20I squad for the New Zealand series is perhaps the one with the least surprises and controversial calls.

Squad for 3 T20Is Vs New Zealand: Hardik Pandya (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.

Hardik Pandya has been named the captain of the side after his recent rise as a senior player. Pandya was the vice captain when Rishabh Pant led the side against South Africa earlier this year. Now the roles have reversed as Pandya is more of a mainstay in T20Is than Pant and the all-rounder is senior anyway. Pandya is definitely being looked at as a future captain and rightly so. Apart from the two the other players who have kept their place in the T20 squad are Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma have been rested from the entire New Zealand tour but will be back for the Bangladesh ODIs. Mohammed Shami is also not included in the squad and it is unlikely that he plays a T20I after the World Cup. The inclusion of Shami in the World Cup was more of an emergency as Jasprit Bumrah was injured and no other bowler was ready. Dinesh Karthik is also dropped from the squad as the BCCI understandably wants to move on as he will be 39 by the time the next T20 World Cup is played. The same with Ravichandran Ashwin as India now have the option of a young Washington Sundar who can play his role. Axar Patel is also not in the squad but it is unclear whether he is dropped or just rested.

Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik have made it into the squad. None of these inclusions are particularly surprising. Umran is one bowler who needs to be groomed by the Indian side because he can be a huge asset for the team. Shubman Gill is also in the squad and will be hoping to make his T20I debut. Despite consistent performances in the IPL, Gill has never played the shortest format with India. His recent performances in the ODI format has translated into a place in the T20 set-up. 

Ravi Bishnoi, who was dropped from the World Cup squad despite good performances still doesn't get a place in the squad which is very surprising. Kuldeep Yadav is picked as a wrist spinner instead. Avesh Khan and Ruturaj Gaikwad on the other hand deserve to not be in the squad as their performances have not been up to the mark at the international stage. Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar are presumably not fit enough to be in the squad. There is still no place for Prithvi Shaw who has been scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket. Overall Bishnoi, Shaw and Axar are the three players whose exclusion is very surprising.

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