Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are set to make their much-awaited return to T20Is after being named in the India squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. The BCCI named Rohit Sharma as the captain for the series in addition to including Virat Kohli as well.
Both the players have not played a T20I for Team India since the loss against England in the semifinal of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. The way things panned out in the last one year or so, it looked all but over for them in the shortest format of the game.
However, the BCCI has dropped a huge hint that the senior batters are still in their plans for this year’s T20 World Cup by recalling them for India’s last T20I assignment before the marquee event. The selectors have also dropped another surprise by including Sanju Samson in the India squad for the series. The Kerala star and Jitesh Sharma are the two wicketkeeping options for the team.
India squad for Afghanistan series:
Samson has not played a T20I for India since the tour of Ireland in August last year. With the selectors preferring the likes of Ishan Kishan and Jitesh ahead of Samson, it looked unlikely that he would get a recall anytime soon in T20Is for India squad. However, the right-handed batsman has been given another chance to prove himself in T20Is. Samson recently impressed by scoring a fine century during the ODI series in South Africa.
Meanwhile, the selectors have also decided to rest several frontline players such as Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. All the players recently returned from South Africa where India played 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 2 Tests. Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav are also not in the India squad as they continue to recover from injuries.
In the bowling department, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar will shoulder the responsibility in pace-bowling department while the spin department has Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.
India Squad:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
