India Announce T20I Squad For New Zealand Tour

India, on Sunday, announced their T20I squad for the tour of New Zealand which starts later this month. India will play five T20Is, three ODIs and as many Tests on the challenging tour. This will be the first meeting between the sides since the World Cup in July where New Zealand beat India in a thrilling semifinal encounter.

As expected, Rohit Sharma has returned to the side after being rested for the series against Sri Lanka. The star opener will also play the ODI series against Australia at home. With Rohit Sharma back in the squad, Sanju Samson has been dropped. Samson recently played against Sri Lanka but failed to make much of an impression.

In fact, he was recalled to the T20I side only because of unavailability of others. After making his debut way back in 2015, Sanju Samson was recalled for the series against Bangladesh in November after Virat Kohli was rested.

However, he did not play a single game and was surprisingly dropped for the series against West Indies. But an injury to Shikhar Dhawan led to another recall although he did not play any game against West Indies either. He retained his spot in the team for the Sri Lanka series only because Rohit was rested. Another notable absentee from the team is Hardik Pandya who has not played since September.

With Pandya out, Shivam Dube has retained his spot in the team. In the bowling department, Mohammed Shami has been recalled while Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini have retained their spots. The T20I series will get underway on January 24.

India T20 squad for New Zealand tour:

Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, S Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur

Here is the schedule of India’s Tour of New Zealand 2019/20:

T20Is:

Jan 24: T20 at Eden Park, Auckland
Jan 26: T20 at Eden Park, Auckland
Jan 29: T20 at Seddon Park
Jan 31: T20 at Westpac Stadium, Wellington
February 2: T20 at Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui

ODI series:

Feb 5: ODI at Seddon Park, Hamilton
Feb 8: ODI at Eden Park, Auckland
Feb 11: ODI at Bay Oval, Tauranga

Test series:

Feb 21-25: Test at Basin Reserve, Wellington
Feb 29-Mar 4: Test at Hagley Oval, Christchurch