India have announced a 15-member squad for the upcoming four-match T20I series in South Africa. Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Nitish Reddy have not been picked as they are a part of the Test squad that will fly to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The selectors have included three uncapped players with the likes of Ramandeep Singh and Vijaykumar Vyshak earning maiden international call-ups. Yash Dayal was a part of the Test squad against Bangladesh but did not make his debut. This is the first time he has been included in the T20I setup.
Ramandeep has been highly impressive in recent times in the shortest format. He averages 24.72 and strikes at 170 in his T20 career and can bowl medium pace as well. Add to that, he is superb in the field. He got 94 runs at a strike-rate of 191.83 in the ACC Men’s T20 Emerging Cup recently and chipped in with three wickets. Vyshak has played a couple of seasons of the IPL with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and has been impressive in the domestic circuit as well. He has 42 wickets in 30 T20s in his career. Dayal was excellent in the IPL 2024 for RCB, picking 15 wickets.
Mayank Yadav, Shivam Dube and Riyan Parag not picked due to injuries
Mayank Yadav, Shivam Dube and Riyan Parag were not considered for selection. Parag is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence for a chronic right shoulder injury. Dube who was ruled out of the Bangladesh T20Is due to a back injury continues to recover.
Meanwhile, Yadav who has grabbed attention for his pace and impressive debut in the IPL this year has suffered another setback. He went through a lengthy rehabilitation for a back injury that he sustained in the IPL and even made his debut in the T20Is against Bangladesh. But he has been sidelined again due to injury.
Axar Patel who was left out of the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy finds a place in the T20I squad. His last appearance in the shortest format was against Sri Lanka in July this year. Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi are the other spinners in the side.
The Suryakumar Yadav-led squad will kickstart the series on the 8th of November in Durban. Gqeberha, Centurion and Johannesburg will host the remaining matches which will finish on the 15th of November.
SQUAD: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Jitesh Sharma (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal.
