Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj have been rested keeping in mind their workloads ahead of the upcoming five-Test series at home against England. Also missing are Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja, who was vice-captain during the South Africa T20Is that India drew 1-1. Jadeja missed the first Test against South Africa because of a neck spasm.
Deepak Chahar, who was named for the South Africa T20Is but didn’t take part due to a personal emergency, misses out altogether, with the selectors continuing with Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar. Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi form the spin attack. Kuldeep, who picked a five-for in his most recent T20I in South Africa, picked up three wickets for Uttar Pradesh in the first-round Ranji Trophy fixture against Kerala.
Following the three T20Is against Afghanistan on January 11, 14 and 17, India host England from January 25 to March 11, after which the players will disperse to join their respective IPL teams for the 2024 season, which will conclude only a couple of weeks before the T20 World Cup begins on June 1.
India’s T20I squad for series vs Afghanistan
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
