Rohit-Dravid era: Kohli, Hardik, Shami rested as India press T20I reset button

The Indian cricket team has pressed the reset button with the announcement of the new T20I squad for the series against New Zealand.

The Rohit Sharma era of captaincy is here after he was formally announced as the skipper for the upcoming T20I series against the Black Caps, beginning November 17.

The new captain-coach pair of Rohit Sharma and Rahul David took off with some hard moves.

Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami have all been rested for the T20I series as these players have been on the road since June this year.

KL Rahul has been named as vice-captain. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harshal Patel, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel have also been named in the squad.

Gaikwad and Iyer had good showing in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and hence they have been rewarded.

Iyer was a sensation in the second leg of the IPL in the UAE.

Pacer Mohammed Siraj has also earned a call-up into the T20I side along with Deepak Chahar.

From the T20 World Cup squad, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been retained and they will be seen in action, reports ANI.

Hardik Pandya has not been named in the squad and it is not known whether he has been rested or he has been dropped from the squad.

Hardik did not bowl against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, and he returned to bowling action in the second game against New Zealand.

The selectors may probably want to rethink their strategy of depending on Hardik, the allrounder.

Varun Chakravarthy, who generated hype leading up to the T20 World Cup has also been left out. Chakravarthy could barely trouble two quality teams like Pakistan and New Zealand with his so called ‘mystery element’.

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Kohli had stepped down as the skipper of the T20I side. Kohli had the T20 World Cup as his last assignment as skipper in the shortest format of the game.

New Zealand will play a T20I series and then follow it up with two Test matches. The T20Is will be played on November 17 in Jaipur, November 19 in Ranchi and November 21 in Kolkata. The two Tests will be played in Kanpur (November 25-29) and Mumbai (December 3-7).

India’s T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel and Mohd. Siraj.

• India