Hardik Pandya returns as BCCI announce India squad for T20I series against South Africa
BCCI announced the squad for India’s upcoming T20I series against South Africa. Hardik Pandya is all set to make a return from an injury that kept him sidelined for two months. Shubman Gill, India’s vice-captain in the shortest format of the game, has been added to the squad but his participation in the fray will be subjective to fitness.
Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the squadron for the Men in Blue in the five-match T20I series which is slated to start from December 9th. Rinku Singh and Nitish Kumar Reddy weren’t included in the squad, the only two omissions from India’s last T20I assignment against Australia.
Pandya made his return to competitive cricket in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s premier domestic T20s. He played a phenomenal knock of 77 runs from just 42 balls as Baroda smashed Punjab. This was his first game ever since he suffered an injury against Sri Lanka in the Super Fours of the Asia Cup.
The five matches will be played on December 9th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th in Cuttack, New Chandigarh, Dharamsala, Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively. South Africa managed to dominate India in the Tests, securing a 2-0 clean sweep while the ODI series is currently tied at 1-1 with the series decider set to be played on Saturday.
India’s squad: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vice-capt)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar
*Subject to fitness clearance from BCCI CoE.
