The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named an 18-man squad for the three-match T20I series against England. Former national captain, Virat Kohli, will not be a part of the opening T20I to be held on Thursday, July 7 at The Rose Bowl in Southampton.
Rohit Sharma was earlier ruled out of India’s fifth Test against England after he tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week. The Nagpur-born legend will return to lead the team in white-ball matches on England soil.
Umran Malik, who performed brilliantly in the second and final T20I against Ireland, has been retained in the squad. Rahul Tripathi did not get a chance to represent the national team in the T20I series and would be hoping to get a game against Jos Buttler & Co.
Jasprit Bumrah did not play in the T20I series against South Africa and Ireland but has been included in the squad for the last two matches against the Three Lions. Ruturaj Gaikwad is part of the opening game but will miss the last two matches against the British.
Rishabh Pant will not be a part of the opening T20I, and will return for the second and third matches of the series. Pant also did not feature in Andrew Balbirnie’s T20I series against Ireland.
Indian team for first T20 match: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik
Indian team for second and third T20: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik