Team India selectors announced the 15 member T20I squad for the upcoming 3 match series against South Africa slated to begin in Dharamshala on 15th September. The selection committee met on Thursday and picked the squad which purely signalled the fact that they decided to stick with the winning combination which saw the Men in Blue thrash Windies by a 3-0 margin.
The only change in the squad was the inclusion of all-rounder Hardik Pandya who was rested for the Windies tour. It was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who made way for Hardik. Meanwhile, former India skipper MS Dhoni hasn’t been named in the squad. The likes of Jasprit Bunmrah, Mohammad Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav has also been rested like the series against Windies.
Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad stated that firstly MS Dhoni is not available and they have set a roadmap for the youngsters going into the future. I don’t think we need to discuss anything more on it. First of all, he is not available. Second, we have already started grooming youngsters,” chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said at the media conference to announced the squad for the West Indies last month.
Also Read: Delhi gets new coaching staff ahead of the 2019/20 domestic season
“Post World Cup, we have laid down a few more plans and we thought of giving as many opportunities as possible to Rishabh Pant and to see he is groomed. That is our plan right now and we did discuss this with him (Dhoni),” Prasad had said.
The Indian team management has made it pretty clear that they want to give a long rope to Rishabh Pant who wasn’t at his best during the series against Windies. Barring a half-century in the dead rubber, Pant was pretty ordinary and gave away his wickets pretty cheaply.
Shreyas Iyer who looked in ominous touch during the ODI series against Windies has retained his place in the shortest format as well. Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar and Rahul Chahar continue to be part of the squad. It will be Navdeep Saini who will be leading the pace attack with his sheer pace and bounce.
India’s squad for 3 T20Is: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
