Rohit Sharma to lead T20 squad while Virat Kohli returns for tests against Bangladesh

45

The national selection committee on Thursday, officially confirmed that Virat Kohli will be rested for the upcoming T20Is against Bangladesh, with Rohit Sharma being selected as the captain in his absence. The MSK Prasad led national selection committee, has emphasized on young players for next month’s series; as Kerala wicketkeeper Sanju Samson along with Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube have been called up.

“It is important to have all-rounders in the T20s. He (Dube) had a bit of edge over Vijay Shankar. His performance against West Indies A and South Africa was phenomenal. I am sure he will do well,” Prasad said.

Navdeep Saini is out injured and will be unavailable for the series. Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur has been called to take his place.

The committee also had a meeting with the new BCCI chief, Sourav Ganguly and Prasad appeared to be satisfied with Dada’s appointment.

“It is good to have a cricketer at the helm and he also pointed a few of his observations and we will take note of that,” he said after the meeting.

For the test series though, the selectors did not make any changes; keeping the same side which recently whitewashed South Africa 3-0. Wriddhiman Saha who picked up an injury, will continue with the team. But Shahbaz Nadeem gets the axe as the selectors preffered Kuldeep Yadav over him.

Squad:

T20Is

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur.

Test

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant