India’s selectors named a 16-member squad for the T20 international series in New Zealand, with Shreyas Iyer as captain and Tilak Varma as vice-captain, according to the ICC, Olympics.com and ESPN. The squad was announced on 6 October, according to the search summary. The series has five matches, starting on 22 October at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
The squad is: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, according to the ICC. Samson and Kishan are both wicketkeepers.
The main selection story is Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s return. He has not played a T20 international since November 2022, nearly four years ago, according to the ICC, which says that his ability to generate swing could be valuable in New Zealand conditions. Varun Chakravarthy is back from injury, according to Olympics.com. Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar are left out, according to the ICC and Olympics.com, with the latter naming only Bishnoi as out of the squad.
WION reported that fitness issues involving Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana delayed the announcement of the squad. The article was not opened, and IndiaX24 reports only the headline’s claim that the fitness concerns delayed the selection.
The schedule has changed in the reports. The ICC lists five T20Is on 22 and 24 October in Christchurch, on 27 October in Wellington, on 30 October in Auckland and on 1 November in Hamilton. An earlier report that IndiaX24 cited, ESPN’s listing of India’s fixtures, referred to four T20 matches in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington from 22 October, so the number of matches and the venues differ between sources, and IndiaX24 follows the ICC’s list for this article.
Some of the squad are fresh from the home series against West Indies, which is level at 2-2 going into the decider on 17 October, as IndiaX24 has reported. Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson both featured in that series, with Samson scoring 56 off 23 balls in the fourth match, according to IndiaX24’s earlier report, and Shreyas Iyer led India in the Asian Games, where the team won gold, according to the headline of a Yahoo Sports report.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is in the squad, and Rajasthan Royals announced his selection on their website, according to the search results. The reports reviewed do not give his age or his career figures, so no comparison is made here.
The bowling options in the squad are the fast bowlers Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav, the spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, and the all-rounder Axar Patel, which is IndiaX24’s grouping of the names in the ICC’s list. The reports reviewed do not describe the team’s likely selection for the first match.
The series is a long way from home and starts after the home decider. The gap between the fifth T20I against West Indies on 17 October and the first match in Christchurch on 22 October is five days, a count from the dates, and the reports reviewed do not describe the travel plans.
IndiaX24 will report the toss and teams for the first T20I on 22 October.
Image: Hagley Oval in Christchurch, venue of the first T20I (file photo). Photo by Phillip Capper, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.