The Indian squad for the T20I’s against New Zealand and the first two Tests against Sri Lanka was announced and there were some surprising inclusions in the squad. Mohammad Siraj who made his mark in the IPL along with prolific run scorer for Mumbai, Shreyas Iyer, was elected for the T20I’s against New Zealand.
Following Secretary Amitabh Choudhary’s squad announcement, Chairman of Selectors MSK Prasad stated that both Siraj and Iyer was rewarded for their consistent performances in the domestic circuit, IPL and India A tours.
“Shreyas has been prolific in all forms of the game, be it Test, ODI, T20, IPL, name anything he is performing, so we will stick with this policy; if we pick a player we will give him an extended run and we will continue with him for some point and nurture him and see that he goes on to become successful. Siraj is also doing well and has been duly rewarded,” Prasad said.
As far as the Test squad is concerned regular Test spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja expectedly made a return while Kuldeep Yadav was picked as the 3rd specialist spinner. Opener Murali Vijay who failed to recover before the start of the Test series in Sri Lanka has been named in the squad for the return series as he proved his fitness in the Ranji Trophy.
Meanwhile, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Wriddhiman Saha and Cheteshwar Pujara who are touted as Test specialists also returned to the squad. As per reports in the Hindu, Chairman of Selectors MSK Prasad has conceded the fact that the “rotation policy” will be applicable for the captain as well.
Kohli who was picked in both the squads but he is expected to be rested for the final Test against Sri Lanka and also the limited overs series against the same opponents to give himself enough time to prepare for the tough tour of South Africa scheduled to start on 5th January 2018.
