Mumbai: Left-hander Suresh Raina stormed his way back into India’s T20I squad for the three-match T20I series against South Africa, as announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on January 28.
Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur, who is uncapped in T20Is too has been named in the squad but Shreyas Iyer has been left out.
Having played a T20I against England in February last year, Raina has failed to make it to the Indian team, after failing the Yo-Yo test, which is now a criterion mandatory for selection. But the middle-order batsman had cleared the Test before the squad for the ODI series against South Africa was announced.
The Uttar Pradesh cricketer has been in very good form ever since clearing the test and has ended up as the highest run-getter from his team and the sixth highest overall in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. He had a very good outing in the competition where he scored 314 runs including two fifties and a 126 against Bengal, at a strike rate of 146.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who was rested for the T20I series at home against Sri Lanka in December makes it to the squad.
Virat Kohli, who too was rested returns to the team as captain. Apart from Iyer, names like Washington Sundar, Deepak Hooda, Basil Thampi did not find a place in the squad.
The T20I series would be played after the six-match ODI series with the first match to be played in Johannesburg on February 18. The second and third matches would be played in Centurion and Cape Town on February 21 and 24 respectively.
Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur.