In spite of having won five out of six white-ball matches against Sri Lanka, India have still made three and two changes to their ODI and T20I squads respectively for the upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand. For the unversed, India will be hosting New Zealand for three ODIs and as many T20Is between January 18 – February 1.
While wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul and all-rounder Axar Patel have been relieved from their ODI duties temporarily due to “family commitments”, fast bowler Arshdeep Singh has been left out of the ODI squad without him playing a single match in the recently concluded ODI series.
In addition to a maiden ODI call-up for wicket-keeper batter Srikar Bharat, India have also included all-rounders Shahbaz Ahmed and Shardul Thakur to a 16-member ODI squad. Both Ahmed and Thakur had last played for India during the tour of Bangladesh last month.
As far as the T20I squad is concerned, batter Prithvi Shaw and spinner Kuldeep Yadav have been included into the squad in place of Axar Patel and pacer Harshal Patel. Shaw, who had been knocking on the doors of the T20I squad for quite some time now, deserved a national comeback. Yadav, on the other hand, has been rewarded for consistent performances in the other two formats.
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While Shaw had last played a T20I in July 2021, Yadav’s last international match in the shortest format dates back to August 2022. With neither his mention in the squad nor an update on his injury, it could be possible that wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson hasn’t recovered from an injury which he sustained during the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Mumbai earlier this month.
Indian cricket team squad and player list vs New Zealand 2023
ODIs – Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik.
T20Is – Hardik Pandya (c), Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar.
