India have announced their 15-man squad for the ODIs against New Zealand. Shubman Gill is back as expected and will lead the Men in Blue. Shreyas Iyer is part of the squad list but subject to CoE’s approval
so there are not many surprises as it is largely the main team players to make it through to the squad. There were no domestic surprises in the squad with the likes of Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel not getting picked and Rishabh Pant retains his spot as the back up wicket-keeper. Hardik Pandya despite playing Vijay Hazare has been rested from the ODI squad and they are managing his workload keeping in mind the upcoming WT20.
BCCI’s statement with regards to Hardik Pandya’s health: he is ready for action in ODIs, hence his participation in the VHT, but as expected it is a workload concern and he has not been cleared to bowl in full tilt for 10 overs. The statement read “Hardik Pandya has not been cleared by the BCCI COE to bowl 10 overs in a match and considering the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to follow, his workload is being managed”
Ruturaj Gaikwad is another surprise omission as he does not make it to the squad despite scoring a century against South Africa in the last series. Mohammad Shami continues to be ignored while Siraj makes a return to the squad. Ravindra Jadeja has retained his position and hence there was no place for Axar Patel.
Tilak Varma played one game against South Africa but didn’t get to bat, while Jurel was benched in all three matches and Gaikwad are the prominent names to miss out from the squad from the South African series. The Three-match ODI series against New Zealand, starting on January 11 at the BCA Stadium in Vadodara.
India Squad for 3-match ODI Series vs New Zealand
Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal
