Mumbai/UNI: In a big move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has left out Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the Indian T20 team for the upcoming Mastercard New Zealand Tour of India.
The BCCI has recalled Prithvi Shaw for the T20 series against New Zealand. He has been rewarded for his record-breaking triple century in the Ranji Trophy match against Assam at Guwahati.
By dropping Rohit and Kohli, BCCI has made a statement of moving on from them and making the team with keeping the future in mind. Earlier, both Kohli and Rohit had made themselves available for Indian T20 Team, but BCCI seems to be not too amused.
Hardik Pandya has been named captain in place of Rohit, and Suryakumar Yadav has been made his deputy. Interestingly, the BCCI has named two wicketkeepers Ishan Kishan and Jitesh Sharma.
The BCCI however clarified that KL Rahul and Axar Patel, have not been dropped, but were unavailable for the New Zealand home series due to family commitments.
However, Rohit has been retained as ODI captain and Hardik Pandya as his deputy. Kohli also retains his place, especially after back-to-back centuries in the ODIs.
The BCCI has called up KS Bharat to don the gloves behind the stumps.
Indias T20I squad against New Zealand: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Suryakumar Yadav (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar.
Indias ODI squad against New Zealand: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Umran Malik.
