The BCCI announced India's highly-anticipated squad for the upcoming T20I series against England on Saturday, January 11. The star bowler Mohammed Shami returned to international cricket after a gap of 14 months, in a major boost to India's preparations for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Shami, 34, last played international cricket during the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 and the T20I game during the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. Shami is expected to gain match fitness ahead of the ODI series against the Three Lions and the Champions Trophy starting on February 19.
Apart from Shami's return to the T20 setup, the management named the spin all-rounder as vice-captain for the five-match series against England starting on January 22. The majority of the key players from the South Africa T20I series were included in the team with Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel being two wicketkeeping options.
Nitish Reddy also returned to the T20I squad after being snubbed for the South Africa series due to his involvement in the Indian team for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Reddy was picked ahead of pace all-rounder Shivam Dube who missed the last T20I assignment due to an injury.
Washington Sundar also found a place in a three-man spin attack alongside Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi but there was no place for Kuldeep Yadav. India also dropped fast bowlers Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan and Yash Dayal from their previous T20I squad and included Harshit Rana to partner Shami and Arshdeep Singh in the pace attack against England.
India's squad for the T20I series against England
Suryakumar Yadav (C), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk).
India vs England T20I series schedule
22 January: First T20I vs England (Eden Gardens)
25 January: Second T20I vs England (Chennai)
28 January: Third T20I vs England (Rajkot)
31 January: Fourth T20I vs England (Pune)
2 February: Fifth T20I vs England (Wankhede)