India’s ace fast bowler Mohammed Shami has made the much-awaited return to the Indian squad. Shami has been added to India’s T20I series squad against England after proving his full fitness.

The veteran fast bowler had last played in the final of the ODI World Cup 2023 against Australia and he was ruled out with an ankle injury. Shami struggled to make his comeback after suffering knee-related niggles. 

Shami was also in line to make his comeback in the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia but he could not get a green signal from BCCI’s medical team.

The right-arm pacer actively participated in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Bengal but his workload was monitored during the Vijay Hazare trophy after inflammation.

Meanwhile, Axar Patel has been appointed as the vice-captain in place of Hardik Pandya, who was earlier expected to lead India in the shortest format of the game. Dhruv Jurel has been picked as the second wicket-keeper in the side and there is no place for Rishabh Pant, who hasn’t played a T20I since July 2024.

Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar are back in the squad after missing the South Africa tour as they were in Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The five-match series kicks off on January 22 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. India and England will also take on each other in a three-match ODI series before the all-important Champions Trophy.

Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk)