India on Monday picked the national cricket team for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia and for the home T20I series against Australia and South Africa. (More Cricket News)
As expected, India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, along with Harshal Patel made a return. The Rohit Sharma-led side will however miss the services of star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja due to an injury. And Axar Patel has been given the nod.
Both Bumrah and Patel missed India's fraught Asia Cup title defence in the UAE.
India will face reigning champions Australia and New Zealand in their ICC T20 World Cup warm-up games on October 17 and October 19, respectively at the Gabba, Brisbane. The tournament starts on October 16 with newly-crowned Asian champions Sri Lanka taking on Namibia in Geelong.
The tournament proper, the Super 12, will kick off on October 22 with a Group 1, Trans-Tasman fixture at the SCG, Sydney. Besides Australia and New Zealand, the group has Afghanistan, England and two qualifiers from the first round.
India are in Group 2 and start their campaign with a mouth-watering fixture against arch-rivals Pakistan at MCG, Melbourne on October 23. Bangladesh, South Africa and two more qualifiers join the group.
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
Standby players: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.
"Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be reporting to the NCA for conditioning-related work during the course of the home series against Australia and South Africa," said BCCI in a release.
India will play three T20Is each against Australia and South Africa before the T20 World Cup. Proteas will stay back for three ODIs.
Mohali will host the first T20I against Australia (September 20) with Nagpur (September 23) and Hyderabad (September 25) organising the second and third, respectively.
The home series against South Africa will begin in Thiruvananthapuram on September 28. The second T20I will be played on October 2 in Guwahati followed by the last game in Indore on October 4. The action will shift to Lucknow on October 6 where the ODI series will get underway. Ranchi and Delhi will host the second and third ODI, respectively, on October 9 and 11, but the series won't have any World Cup-bound players.
India Squad for Australia T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.
India squad for South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.
