The Indian squad has been announced for the upcoming India vs Bangladesh T20I series. The selectors have decided to rest Virat Kohli citing the need to manage his workload. Rohit Sharma will captain the team in Virat’s absence.
There are a couple of new faces in the squad in the form of Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube. The selection of both Samson and Dube was expected as they have played some wonderful innings in the domestic circuit recently.
With Hardik Pandya being injured, India needed a big hitter lower down the order to take up the finisher’s role alongside Rishabh Pant and Dube fits the bill perfectly. The left-hander can hit the ball a long way.
Navdeep Saini, the young fast bowler, who had made his T20I debut in West Indies, has not been picked, while Khaleel Ahmed has been retained despite not providing impressive returns in the series against South Africa.
Navdeep’s replacement in the squad is Shardul Thakur who isn’t an ideal T20 bowler. In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, India need someone to bowl in the death and Shardul is not ideally suited to do that. He is a swing bowler.
Yuzvendra Chahal is back in the squad after being kept away from the T20 set-up for a little while. He will pair up with Rahul Chahar to form a leg spinning duo.
Since, Rishabh Pant is also there in the squad, he will most probably keep wickets and Sanju Samson, if he is picked in the XI, will play as a specialist batsman.
Here is the full squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur
