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Virat, Rahul, Bumrah, Shami, Ravindra Jadeja To Be Rested For NZ Series?
By CricShots - Nov 8, 2021 12:23 pm
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The Indian players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Rishabh Pant will be expected to be rested for India’s upcoming T20I series against New Zealand at home. The three-match series is scheduled to be commencing in Jaipur on November 17, with Rohit Sharma all set to take over as captain in the T20Is. There are indications that a formal announcement on his elevation as an ODI skipper could also happen in the next couple of days with Kohli remaining in charge of the Test team.

virat rahul
KL Rahul and Virat Kohli gave the momentum

India will play their last group match of the T20 World Cup against Namibia on Monday, as they are already out of contention to qualify for the smears. The selectors are understood to have more or less finalized the team and apart from giving much-needed rest to these seven players, all-rounder Hardik Pandya may be dropped for the New Zealand series as they are ready to look ahead with Madhya Pradesh’s Venkatesh Iyer being seen as a potential replacement.

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As far as spinners go, Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar are expected to retain their spots alongside Axar Patel/ On the batting front, Maharashtra’s Ruturaj Gaikwad will be expected to get a maiden call-up. Even Shreyas Iyer, who missed out on the T20 World Cup squad, is set to take his spot in the middle-order. Since Ishan Kishan is around, there won’t be a need for a third opener.

shardul thakur
Shardul Thakur

With Shami and Bumrah getting rest, India will be expected to go with a different pace attack with Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj are expected to get a look-in for the three-match series that will be played in Jaipur, Ranchi, and Kolkata before the two-match Test series commences on November 25 in Kanpur.

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Given their cramped schedule, there are indications that the Indian team will have a separate set of players for T20s going forward as they are keen on improving the workload. In the next couple of years, India is entering a rebuilding phase and it is in the white-ball formats where they are diverting all their attention as they have the next World Cups coming their way in as many years.

Meanwhile, the BCCI is also expected to finalize the batting, fielding, and bowling coaches to assist head coach Rahul Dravid on Monday as they have to enter a bio-bubble on Wednesday.