All-rounder Hardik Pandya was named captain as the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced a 17-member squad for the upcoming two-match T20 International series in Ireland.
After the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa concludes, India will travel to Ireland to play two games of the shortest format. Both matches (on June 26 and 28) will be played in Dublin.
Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was named the vice-captain of the team, while hard-hitting batter Rahul Tripathi was included on the back of a solid Indian Premier League 2022 campaign.
Senior pros Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were not included in the squad, while the BCCI press release didn’t offer any update on the injury status of KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav. Shreyas Iyer, too, will not be a part of the squad for the Ireland series.
Suryakumar Yadav makes a return after missing the end of IPL and South Africa series. Also finding a place is Sanju Samson, who led RR to the IPL final but was missing from the squad to face Proteas.
India’s squad for the two-match T20I series against Ireland:
Hardik Pandya (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vc), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.
Pandya led his Gujarat Titans team to victory in the recently held IPL 2022.
The Indian team will also travel to England in July to complete the one-off Test against the hosts that was called off due to coronavirus last September. The Indian Test squad was announced last month.
The teams are also scheduled to play three T20Is and three One-Day Internationals during the nearly three-week long England tour.