India vs England 2021: BCCI Announces the official T20I Squad
Rishabh Pant returns as the primary keeper as we look at the official Team India squad for the 2021 T20I series vs England.
With India vs England Test Series, World Test Championship, and the IPL 2021 Auction grabbing all the headlines recently in the Cricketing world, the BCCI has silently named Team India’s official squad for the 5-match T20I series vs England, which will succeed the Test Series from March 12 in Ahmedabad.
The squad comes with a lot of surprises with plenty of new faces included, some key players rested, some unavailable due to injuries, and of course, some players are dropped too. More importantly, Team India have once again named a 19-member squad, which was also present during the Australia series.
So, who is in? Who is out? Let’s look at the official squad for Team India for the T20I series vs England.
Key Changes:
Team India have decided to rest their star bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, whose workload has been at the extreme end. This break would give him good time to re-energize before the ODI series and IPL 2021. Apart from him, Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami have been left-out on account of injuries. Jadeja and Shami are also not a part of the ongoing Test Series squad vs England.
Meanwhile, Varun Chakravarty, who was initially in the T20I squad for the Australia series, but had to withdraw due to injury is also back as the main spinner alongside Chahal. The pace duties still reside with T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, and swing king Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been away from the Indian team for quite some time now. His inclusion would boost Team India’s bowling attack considerably in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. The squad also sees Team India’s best opener, Rohit Sharma returning back after missing Australia’s limited-overs series due to injury.
New Inclusions:
Team India have included 5 new names in the squad alongside men-to-return Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rohit Sharma. The 5 new names include Mumbai Indians’ dynamic duo, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav, who have finally earned maiden call-ups after some stunning performances in IPL 2020 and domestic cricket.
The all-rounders, Axar Patel and Rahul Tewatia are also included in the squad to cover up for Ravindra Jadeja. While Axar has already played 11 T20Is, Rahul Tewatia has earned a maiden call-up for his fabulous performance in IPL 2020. It seems that IPL has been the major driving force behind all the selections as has been seen from KKR’s Varun Chakravarty too.
BCCI also announced that Rishabh Pant would be the primary wicket-keeper in the squad alongside Ishan Kishan. That means KL Rahul, who was perceived to be the main keeper in the limited-overs format won’t be given keeping duties during this tour. The main reason behind this change could be Pant’s stunning form with the bat and gloves in the whites during the recent Australia and England series.
Dropped Players:
While many new faces are included, two key players, Sanju Samson and Mayank Agarwal were left out from the squad. While Samson was removed for underperformance in the T20I series vs Australia, the reason for Mayank’s exit could be the return of Rohit Sharma.
So, these are the key updates for Team India’s official squad for the T20I series vs England. Meanwhile, here’s the official squad announcement:
India vs England 2021: Team India’s Official T20I Squad:
Virat Kohli (C), Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (WK), KL Rahul, Navdeep Saini, Rahul Tewatia, Rishabh Pant (WK), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shardul Thakur, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, T Natarajan, Varun Chakravarty, Washington Sundar & Yuzvendra Chahal.
Meanwhile, here’s the complete schedule for India vs England T20I series.
- 1st Match: Ahmedabad // March 14
- 2nd Match: Ahmedabad // March 16
- 3rd Match: Ahmedabad // March 18
- 4th Match: Ahmedabad // March 20
- 5th Match: Ahmedabad // March 23
Thanks for reading! Are you happy with Team India’s squad for the T20I series vs England? Please email your comments to business@cricalytics.com
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Adesh Kothari is the founder of AK4Tsay1 Cricalytics with over 20 years of experience following Cricket.
Cricket to him is like what Football is to Lionel Messi, Singing is to Lata Mangeshkar, Dancing is to Michael Jackson, and Acting is to Clint Eastwood.
Besides his effervescent love for Cricket, Adesh is an MBA by qualification.
