The Indian Cricket Board announced the squads for the upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand. Opener Prithvi Shaw has been recalled to the T20I team having last played a game for India back in July 2021. Hardik Pandya will continue to lead the side in the shortest format with Suryakumar Yadav as his deputy.
Senior players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have been once again not picked in the T20I side as the Indian Cricket Board continues to prepare the roadmap for the 20-20 World Cup next year. Both Rohit and Kohli will return to the team for the ODIs.
Andhra batter KS Bharat has earned his maiden call-up to India’s ODI squad while Shahbaz Ahmed has also returned to the ODI team.
Speedster Jasprit Bumrah was also not picked in the team for both formats as the Indian Cricket Board doesn’t want to rush the star seamer and give him enough time to regain match fitness. Jasprit Bumrah will play a crucial role for the team in the ODI World Cup later this year and the World Test championship final.
KL Rahul and Axar Patel not picked due to family commitments
Star allrounder Ravindra Jadeja was also not to be found in any of the squads as he’s also on his road to fitness having suffered a freak injury during Asia Cup 2022.
Both KL Rahul and Axar Patel were not considered for selection for the entire series against New Zealand due to family commitments while Shardul Thakur returned in the mix of things for the ODI series against New Zealand.
India and New Zealand will first play a three-match ODI series starting on January 18th while the three-match T20I series will start on 27th January.
ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik
T20I Squad: Hardik Pandya (C), Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Y Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar
Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz with reactions as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were not considered for the T20I teams. Here are some of the reactions:
India will never win the T20 World Cup if Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are dropped from the T20 squad. Do selection like this and make India Zimbabwe 🙏🙏#BCCISelectionCommittee #INDvsAUS #INDvsNZ #ViratKohli𓃵 #RohitSharma𓃵 #BCCI #RohitSharma #ViratKohli #KLRahul
— King Harsh (@KingHarsh28) January 14, 2023
Prithvi Shaw kept tagging Sai Baba but never got included in the team. He tagged Jay Shah for the first time, he is in the team now. #Shaw #BCCI @JayShah @PrithviShaw #ViratKohli𓃵 #RohitSharma𓃵 #KLRahul𓃵 #HardikPandya #Bumrah #SanjuSamson #sarfarazkhan
— @imbanerji (@imbanerji) January 14, 2023
To get into white ball teams! Prithvi Shaw slammed 379 in quick time and got back into the T20 team. SKY was playing well in T20s , so he got into the test team. Innovative thinking, isn't it?
— Kesava Rao (@KesavRsays) January 14, 2023
As per recent form of Jagdeesan he should have given a odi chance instead of KS Bharat. In Test KS bharat is good.
— Monu (@Monu7733) January 14, 2023
KS Bharat is waiting for his chance, he is waiting long time in bench.
— Hashir Ahmed (@Hashirahmed45) January 14, 2023
Like kl rahul and axar patel , bcci should give some info regarding rohit and virat also for clarity 🤔
— ᕼITᗰᗩᑎ GᗩᑎG!! (@SHUBHAM95137545) January 14, 2023
KL RAHUL ko nahi liya pic.twitter.com/xgmoAGg68L
— AD💧 (@durugkar_anup) January 14, 2023
