Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Tewatia Get Call-up as India Announce Squad for England T20Is; Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rishabh Pant Return

Suryakumar Yadav gets his much-awaited India senior team call-up after scoring consistent runs in domestic cricket in the past couple of years.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced a 19-member squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against England. The first match of the series will be played on March 12.

Middle-order batsman Suryakumar Yadav gets his much-awaited India senior team call-up after scoring consistent runs in domestic cricket in the past couple of years. Flamboyant wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan also received his maiden call-up alongside all-rounder Rahul Tewatia, who impressed many during IPL 2020 in the UAE.

Ishan Kishan on Saturday morning played an astonishing knock of 173 runs against Madhya Pradesh in the Elite Group B match of Vijay Hazare Trophy. Kishan played a captain’s knock for Jharkhand and dominated the Madhya Pradesh bowling attack during his 94-ball stay in the middle. The southpaw’s innings was laced with 19 fours and 11 sixes.

Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, W Sundar, R Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep, Shardul Thakur. https://t.co/KkunRWtwE6

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 20, 2021

Senior paceman Jasprit Bumrah got the much deserving rest after playing regular cricket in the past couple of months. While Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to the Indian team after recovering from the injury. Bhuvneshwar will lead the pace attack alongside Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja also missed out on his place due to the thumb injury, which he sustained during Australia, as Axar Patel has been included in the squad.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant also returned to the limited-overs set-up after his match-winning knocks in the red-ball series against Australia. The southpaw was also named the ICC player of the month for January.

Meanwhile, Sanju Samson was dropped from the squad after underwhelming performances during the Australia tour.

All five matches of the series will be played at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera in Ahmedabad.

India’s T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, 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.