Bengaluru, May 22: The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Sunday (May 22) has picked an 18-member squad for the upcoming five-match T20I home series against South Africa.
The selection committee has also named India’s 17-member Test squad for the fifth rescheduled Test against England to be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham, from July 1-5. India currently lead the Test series 2-1.
Here are details of the squad. First let’s look into the T20I squad.
1 Newcomers in India T20I squad
Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh: As expected the two pacers have received their maiden call-up to the India team for the home T20Is against South Africa. India will play 5 T20Is against the Proteas. KL Rahul will lead the side.
Umran had impressed everyone in the IPL 2022 league phase for Sunrisers Hyderabad while clocking regularly in excess of 150 kmph. He has taken 21 wickets from 13 matches in the IPL 2022 including a five-wicket haul.
Arshdeep Singh has not taken too many wickets for Punjab Kings, in fact just 10 wickets from 13 matches. But his ability to nail Yorkers at will in the death overs has impressed the selectors.
2 Karthik comes back to T20Is
Dinesh Karthik is having a very fine season for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL 2022. Karthik has amassed 287 runs from 14 matches with a fifty but his strike-rate has been phenomenal 191. It has helped the RCB to set a target or chase down a total on more than one occasion in the IPL 15.
It was a foregone conclusion that Karthik will make a return to the India side for the SA series and he could be used as a finisher at No 5 or 6 and he has also designated as the reserve wicketkeeper behind Rishabh Pant, who has also been named as vice-captain.
Interestingly, Ishan Kishan has also been named in the side but the Mumbai Indians man has not been tagged as a wicketkeeper. So, Ishan could be used as opener or one down batsman.
3 Notable omissions in T20I squad
Shikhar Dhawan was expected to get a call-up but he was not included but Ruturaj Gaikwad and Venkatesh Iyer retained their places despite having a middling IPL 2022 season for Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.
R Ashwin too is having a good season for Rajasthan Royals — both with ball and bat. But the ace offie did not find a place in the T20I squad as selectors stuck with Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel.
4 Test squad: Pujara returns
Cheteshwar Pujara made his way back to the India Test team after a fruitful stint for Sussex in English county cricket. In 5 matches, Pujara has made 2 hundreds and 2 double hundreds in an impressive run. Pujara was dropped from India squad for the home series against Sri Lanka after a prolonged run without big scores.
5 Test squad: New comers
KS Bharat has been included as back-up keeper for Rishabh Pant. He was also a part of India’s squad in the home series against New Zealand. He had kept as substitute keeper in the first Test at Kanpur and took three catches.
Prasidh Krishna also got a call-up to the side that will tour England next month. He has already played 7 ODIs for India.
Here’s the full list of India Test and T20I squads
India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
India’s T20I squad: KL Rahul (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain, wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.