The trio of Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav, and Shahbaz Ahmed have been added to India’s squad for the three-match T20I series against South Africa. Deepak Hooda has been ruled out with a back spasm and he will go through his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy.
It has been reported that Hooda picked up a back injury during training sessions in the T20I series against Australia.
Furthermore, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be at the academy for conditioning-related work.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami has been ruled out as he is yet to recover after testing positive for Covid-19. Shami had also missed the three-match T20I series against Australia. Moreover, Arshdeep Singh, who has impressed with his death bowling, will return back to the squad after resting for the series against Australia.
Shahbaz Ahmed has been added to the squad for the series against the Proteas. The left-arm spinner from Bengal had also received his maiden call-up for the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe but didn’t get to make his debut. Ahmed had impressed with his all-round skills while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL 2022.
On the other hand, Umesh Yadav had recently returned to the limited-overs team after a long gap of almost three years. Yadav, who isn’t part of India’s World Cup squad, had played the first T20I against Australia and had picked two wickets.
The first T20I between India and South Africa will be played at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram.
India T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed
