Mumbai: Rookies Shreyas Iyer and Mohammed Siraj got maiden India T20 call ups when they were included for the three-match T20 series against New Zealand. Ashish Nehra is also in the 160-member squad for the first game in New Delhi on November 1.
Mumbai’s reliable no. 3 batsman Iyer replaces Kedar Jadhav while Hyderabad pacer Siraj is an addition to the squad.
The selection panel, chaired by M.S.K. Prasad also named a team for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka which sees Murali Vijay back in the 16-member squad after missing the Tests against Sri Lanka due to wrist injury. He comes in for fellow Tamil Nadu batsman Abhinav Mukund and has enough time to prove his fitness as the three-Test series gets under way from November 16 in Kolkata. Ishant Sharma has been added to Test squad after missing out on the Sri Lanka tour.
Virat Kohli will continue to lead the side in both the T20 and Test series. Prasad quelled speculation that Kohli — who has been playing continously since the IPL across all formats — had asked to be rested for the Lanka Test series.
“It is not right. We have a certain template and we follow it. We are monitoring the workload of the players, rotational policy will also apply to the captain,” Prasad said.
The 22-year-old Iyer has been a prolific scorer for Mumbai on the domestic circuit in last couple of seasons and has done well for IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils. He also did well for India A during the series in Australia, South Africa and recently against New Zealand A.
“Shreyas has been prolific in all forms of the game, be it a four-day format, be it one-day or T20, be it IPL, he has been performing. We will continue with him and nurture him and see that he goes on to become successful. So is the case with Siraj. He is doing well, he has been duly recognised and rewarded as well,” Prasad said.
Iyer will fancy his chances in the middle order which has looked unsettled as the likes of Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik and K.L. Rahul have been tried at different positions without much success in limited overs cricket.
T20 squad
Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (vice-capt, K.L. Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, M.S. Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra and Mohammed Siraj.
Test squad
Virat Kohli (capt), K.L. Rahul, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma.
Board President’s XI
Naman Ojha (capt, wk), Sanju Samson, Jiwanjot Singh, B. Sandeep, Tanmay Agarwal, Abhishek Gupta, Rohan Prem, Akash Bhandari, Jalaj Saxena, C.V. Milind, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier and Ravi Kiran.
