India has announced a 15-member squad for the three-T20I series against Afghanistan in New Delhi this month. Jasprit Bumrah returned to the squad, with Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar also included, albeit all with an asterisk for fitness clearance. Suryansh Shedge, Prasidh Krishna and Prince Yadav, who were part of the England T20I series, have been dropped from this squad.
India and Afghanistan will play three T20Is on September 13, 15 and 17 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, with the Afghans being the official ‘hosts’. Shreyas Iyer’s men would be looking for a quick change in fortunes after losing to England and Ireland in back-to-back T20I rubbers. Reddy, Rana and Sundar have all been at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) since that
tour, dealing with injuries of various veracities.
After that, there was a brief detour to Zimbabwe, but several first-teamers were rested, including Sanju Samson and Arshdeep Singh. Samson’s exclusion from the series caused a huge uproar, but he’s now back, with Prabhsimran Singh, who made his debut in Zimbabwe, going out.
15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi stays in the squad, and it’ll be interesting to see which two of him, Samson and Abhishek Sharma, open in the first game against Afghanistan. Axar Patel has also retained his place in the squad, despite reports that some decision-makers in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were concerned about his form and were looking at Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Krunal Pandya.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya continues to be out, with no official confirmation over his fitness. Kuldeep Yadav also remains out, in another example of him being out of the selectors’ favor.
India squad: Shreyas Iyer [Captain], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson [WK], Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [Vice Captain], Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
