India vs South Africa: BCCI announces 15-man squad for the T20I series

Team India will take the field on Friday for their last match of the ongoing West Indies. The Virat Kohli-led side will be looking to stay unbeaten across all the formats by winning the second and final Test to be played in Jamaica. Having said that, there is no respite for the Men in Blue as they are scheduled to face South Africa in three T20 Internationals and as many Test matches which marks the beginning of their busy home season.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also announced the 15-man squad for the T20I series which is set to commence on September 15. This series will mark a comeback of the star all-rounder Hardik Pandya who was rested for the whole Caribbean tour. This will bolster India across all the departments even as the selectors have left out the pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

It is not yet clear if he has been rested or dropped. In all likelihood, the former seems to be the reason for his non-inclusion with a lot of cricket to be played in the near future.

MS Dhoni not included

The rest of the squad which faced the Windies in the USA and the Caribbean in the three-match series is the same. The selectors continue to manage Jasprit Bumrah’s workload while the wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal still haven’t been included in the team. Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini and Washington Sundar have retained their position in the side and it seems they will get more chances to seal their place in the side.

The batting line-up boasts of a similar look with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma leading the way. Shikhar Dhawan endured a lean patch but has been given another opportunity to find his mojo while Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey have also been retained. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni hasn’t been included in the squad despite him returning from his Army duty and more details are awaited about the same.

India’s T20I squad for South Africa series: Virat Kohli(Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini.

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