Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand after being diagnosed with a side strain. The injury occurred during the first ODI against New Zealand at the BCA Stadium in Vadodara on 11 January, when Sundar reported acute discomfort in his lower rib area while bowling.
Following the incident, Sundar underwent scans and an in-person consultation with a medical expert. He has been advised to take a few days of rest, after which he will report to the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) for further management of his injury.
The selection committee has named Ravi Bishnoi as Sundar’s replacement in the T20I squad. Additionally, Shreyas Iyer has been added to the squad for the first three matches as a replacement for the injured Tilak Varma. Notably, Tilak recently underwent surgery for his groin injury and it needs to be seen if the Hyderabad batter gets fit ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026.
Shreyas’ T20I return after 2 years
Shreyas has played his last T20I match against Australia in December 2023. His name has been discussed plenty of times but the selection committee preferred the likes of Tilak, Suryakumar Yadav and even Shivam Dube and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Shreyas, in the meantime, proved his mettle in domestic cricket and the IPL, helping KKR lift the title in the 2024 edition and taking PBKS to the final in 2025.
He has played 51 T20I matches in his career, scoring 1104 runs at a strike rate of 136.12. Now, it will be interesting to see if the ODI vice-captain walks straight into the XI or the team management prefer to send Dube and Hardik Pandya up in the order to make room for Rinku Singh, specially given that Shreyas is not part if the T20 World Cup 2026 squad.
India’s updated T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Shreyas Iyer (first three T20Is), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (VC), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ravi Bishnoi
