Nearly 14 months after he last played an international match, veteran Mohammed Shami returned to the Indian team on Saturday for the upcoming five-match T20I series against visiting England. The 34-year-old Shami's last appearance for India was the 2023 ODI World Cup final against Australia in Ahmedabad on November 19, following which he was out of the squad for a long time due to an ankle injury for which he underwent surgery in the competition. Britain last year.
Shami's rehabilitation process was long and arduous and swelling on his knee subsequently prevented him from joining the Indian team for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, leaving Jasprit Bumrah to shoulder the bulk of the heavy bowling load.
Suryakumar Yadav will lead the 15-member team in the series starting on January 22 in Kolkata.
It is understood that Shami has been picked as he will also be part of the Champions Trophy team and will gradually work on his bowling. He will not play all five games against England.
From the side that played South Africa in an away match in November, Ramandeep Singh was replaced by BGT trophy find Nitish Kumar Reddy, while Avesh Khan and Yash Dayal made way for Shami and Harshit Rana respectively.
Wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma was dropped while Dhruv Jurel made the cut. All players picked for the home matches in Bangladesh and the away matches in South Africa were dropped as the T20's top stars were busy with the red-ball season at the time.
The four spinners in the squad are Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar.
Incidentally, Shubman Gill, who was appointed vice-captain after the last T20 World Cup, has not found a place in the team.
Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal open the innings, followed by Tilak Varma and skipper Surya.
Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh are expected to bat at number 5, five and number 6 respectively and they will be followed by Axar in the batting order.
The two pacers for the first few matches are Arshdeep Singh and Shami, with Pandya as the third player. The two wrist spinners – Chakravarthy and Bishnoi – will come into the equation to complete the expected playing XI.
The T20I series against England will begin with the first T20I in Kolkata on January 22, followed by matches in Chennai (January 25), Rajkot (January 28), Pune (January 31) and Mumbai (February 2).
India and England will face each other in a three-match ODI series from February 6.
Team: 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 Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi , Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk).
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