Swashbuckling batters Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and all-rounder Rahul Tewatia have earned their maiden India call-up for the upcoming T20I series against England in Ahmedabad.
The Chetan Sharma-headed selection panel made six changes to the squad that went to Australia, clinching the three-match T20I series 2-1 Down Under in December. While Sanju Samson and Mayank Agarwal have been dropped from the squad, Jasprit Bumrah was rested. On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Manish Pandey have been ruled out due to their respective injuries.
Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant has been recalled to the T20I squad after having been dropped for the Australia tour, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar makes a return to international cricket after more than a year.
Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Rahul Tewatia are selected for the first time as Varun Chakravarthy, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rishabh Pant all return for India's T20 side to face England in March 🇮🇳#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/shjLDp34pS
— ICC (@ICC) February 20, 2021
The trio of Ishan, Suryakumar and Tewatia have been rewarded for their performances in the latest edition of the Indian T20 League. Ishan had amassed the most runs for Mumbai, scoring 516 runs in 14 games including four fifties while Yadav accumulated 480 runs in 16 games for the champion side. While all-rounder Tewatia accumulated 255 runs and bagged 10 wickets in 14 games for Rajasthan.
Earlier in the day, Kishan hammered a 173-run knock off just 94 balls to help Jharkhand post the highest team score in the history of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Kishan-led side posted a total of 422/9 in the allotted fifty overs against Madhya Pradesh in an Elite Group B match at the Holkar Stadium Indore.
India's T20I squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
The first match of the five-match T20I series will be played on March 12 after the ongoing Test series concludes at the newly built Motera Stadium. Both the teams are gearing up for the third Test which commences on February 24.
Feature image courtesy: Twitter/mipaltan
