The BCCI selectors have named Ravi Bishnoi and Shreyas Iyer as replacements for the injured duo of Washington Sundar and Tilak Varma for India‘s upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting January 21. Iyer, however, has been added to the squad only for the first three games, a BCCI release said.
Washington underwent scans after “reporting an acute onset discomfort in his lower rib area while bowling” in the first ODI against New Zealand on January 11 and was diagnosed with a side strain. He will report to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (COE) for further management of his injury after a few days’ rest. He had been replaced by Ayush Badoni for the ongoing ODIs against New Zealand.
Iyer last played a T20I back in December 2023, against Australia at home but had been dropped from India’s T20I plans. Bishnoi, meanwhile, last played his T20I against England almost a year ago in Mumbai.
The five T20Is will be played on January 21 in Nagpur, January 23 in Raipur, January 25 in Guwahati, January 28 in Visakhapatnam and the last one on January 31 in Trivandrum. This will be India’s last series before the T20 World Cup starting February 7.
India’s updated T20I squad for New Zealand series
Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (first three T20Is), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-capt), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravi Bishnoi