India announce squad for England T20I series as Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan get call-ups

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced the Indian squad for the five-match T20I series against England. The likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Ishank Kishan and Varun Chakravarthy have been handed major call-ups, the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar returns to the squad after a lengthy period on the sidelines due to injury.

Virat Kohli will lead the Indian side in the five-match T20I series against England, scheduled to start from March 12. All the matches of the T20I series will be played at the world's largest stadium - Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. 

While some fresh faces have been added to the T20I squad, the likes of Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey missed the cut. Rahul Tewatia, who shot to fame in IPL 2020 where he whacked West Indies pacer, Sheldon Cottrell, for five sixes has been brought into the squad. Whereas Suryakumar Yadav, who has been in menacing form in the Indian domestic circuit and IPL for a few seasons now, finally gets rewarded. Varun Chakravarthy, who was originally drafted into the Indian squad for the T20I series against Australia but missed the series due to injury, gets another call-up.

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Jasprit Bumrah has been rested given the hectic schedule of the Indian team in the year 2021 with the likes of Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan forming up the Indian pace battery. Axar Patel, too, has been included in the T20I side after a good outing in IPL 2020. 

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India squad for England T20I series:

Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, W Sundar, R Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep, Shardul Thakur.