On Sunday, Rohit Sharma made a comeback in India’s 16-member T20I squad for the tour of New Zealand as the selectors decided to drop Sanju Samson. Apart from Rohit, Shami will also be making a comeback who was rested for the T20I series against Sri Lanka. The major surprise in the squad was Hardik Pandya not even considered for the T20I squad. The five-match T20I series against New Zealand will begin on January 24 in Auckland. 

The selection committee led by MSK Prasad kept the ODI and Test squads on hold for the time being. Talking about the same to PTI, a BCCI official said, “There are no surprises in the Indian T20I squad with Rohit, as usual, coming back in place of Sanju, who is already in New Zealand with the A team. All the other players picked themselves.”

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Interestingly, the Test and the ODI squads were not announced and it is believed that Hardik Pandya’s latest fitness drama could be the reason. A BCCI release mentioned that Pandya’s rehabilitation process is taking “longer than expected”. 

As a result of HArdk’s fitness, Vijay Shankar had replaced him in India A squad for the New Zealand shadow tour. 

Talking about the same, one of the sources said, “Hardik Pandya was boarding the flight to New Zealand for A team without playing a Ranji match. If we go by media reports, his trainer has said that there are workload issues with regards to his bowling. That itself implies that he is not fit. I think the BCCI will instruct Hardik to first play Ranji Trophy for Baroda and prove his fitness.”

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India’s T20I squad for NZ tour:

Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur