India-New Zealand T20: Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj in Squad

The Indian dugout has met a new refurbishment. The uncapped pair of batsman Shreyas Iyer and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj have got their name floated in India’s squad for three Twenty20 internationals against New Zealand next month.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee has been responsible to make amends in the squad. They met in Mumbai yesterday to pick the squad for the series starting November 1 in New Delhi. And from the pool of players selected to play Australia earlier this month, the batsman Kedar Jadhav found himself dropped.

Iyer, 22, has previously been part of India’s Test squad in Australia but did not get a debut. He recently enjoyed a string of success for India A across formats. Scoring 140*, 65, 108, 82 and 90 against NZ A and SA A he has remarkably steered his name. In 53 career T20 matches, the right-hand batsman has scored 1289 runs at 26.85. And that too with a batting strike-rate of 128 along with nine fifties.

Newcomers Shreyas Iyer and Mohammad Siraj in Squad

Hyderabad pace bowler Siraj also made his name popping up in the squad. Accounting of a fine Ranji Trophy and Inter-State T20 Tournament last season, he found himself in IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. As a result, he took ten wickets, impressing with his pace. He subsequently was picked for India A’s tour of South Africa where he claimed 10 wickets. Most recently, he featured for India A against New Zealand A. In 16 career T20s, the 23-year-old has 26 wickets at 18.73 and an economy rate of 7.85. With the first T20I at the Feroz Shah Kotla following Nehra’s last international appearance, the addition of Siraj was wise.

Indian team is all ready to play three T20Is with New Zealand in such scenarios.Delhi on November 1, Rajkot on November 4 and Thiruvananthapuram on November 7. India has never beaten New Zealand in a T20I in five head-to-head games. New Zealand leads the ongoing ODI series 1-0 after a seven-wicket win in Mumbai on Sunday.

Virat Kohli leads a 16-man squad that includes two spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, five pacers in Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Hardik Pandya and Siraj, and batsmen in Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey and Siraj, apart from Pandya the allrounder.

India T20I squad:

Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj.