BCCI announces India's 16-man squad for New Zealand ODIs; Shikhar Dhawan's replacement named for T20Is

After sealing the closely-fought three-match ODI series against Australia, India are all set to face New Zealand in their own backyard. The Men in Blue are scheduled to play five T20Is, three ODIs and a couple of Test matches against the Kiwis starting with the tussle in the shortest format. The One-Day Internationals are set to be played from February 5 and the BCCI has announced the squad for the same.

As expected, Shikhar Dhawan has not been included after he sustained an injury to his shoulder while fielding in the third and final ODI against Australia. He hasn’t travelled with the team as well having officially been ruled out of the tour. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is also not part of the squad as he underwent a hernia surgery recently and is undergoing rehabilitation at the moment.

Injury continues to haunt team India as the premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya has failed to recover completely for this tour. Rather he was slated to tour with India A side but was pulled out at the eleventh hour with the cricketer seeking more time to recover. The ODI squad announcement was rather delayed for the same reason as the selectors wanted to track Hardik’s improvement.

Only one change to the India squad which beat Australia

Following so many injury issues, the selectors have decided to retain the majority of the India squad which defeated Australia at home. KL Rahul batted possibly at every position in the series while also donning the wicket-keeping gloves with Rishabh Pant suffering from concussion. The left-hander missed the second and third ODI of the Australia series but is fit now and has also travelled to New Zealand with the ODI squad.

Meanwhile, Prithvi Shaw has replaced Shikhar Dhawan in the ODIs after the former smashed a sensational 150 in the second warm-up game against New Zealand XI. This is his maiden call-up to the ODI side and will be itching to make the opportunity count. Moreover, Sanju Samson has been named in the T20I squad as Dhawan’s replacement.

It remains to be seen now if he will play the first unofficial ODI to be played on Wednesday or joins the Indian team. It will also be interesting to see if Samson will get any chance in New Zealand during the series. The first T20I between India and the Kiwis is set to be played on January 24.

India’s ODI squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Kedar Jadhav.

India’s T20I squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur.