India's squad for T20 World Cup announced; Rohit Sharma to lead, Jasprit Bumrah returns

Indian captain Rohit Sharma (File image: Reuters)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on September 12 announced the squad for the upcoming men's T20 World Cup. Opener Rohit Sharma will continue to lead the side, as he has been named as the team's captain for the marquee ICC event, that will be played from October 16 to November 13 in Australia.

A fit-again pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and death overs specialist Harshal Patel were predictably back, after being ruled out from the recently-held Asia Cup due to injuries.

Bumrah, who was suffering from back injury and Patel, who had a side strain, had done an intense rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket Academy and the BCCI medical team has deemed them fit for selection.

The two players, who missed out on World Cup berth were pacer Avesh Khan and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who was pipped by senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Veteran pacer Mohammed Shami is also back in the T20 scheme of things as he has been picked for the T20 series versus Australia and South Africa prior to the big event and has been named among the four stand-bys who will travel Down Under for the World Cup. The other three reserve players are Shreyas Iyer, Bishnoi and seamer Deepak Chahar.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya, and pacers Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been retained in the team for the World Cup. They will be, however, reporting to the NCA for conditioning-related work during the course of the home series against Australia and South Africa. Bhuvneshwar will miss the South Africa series while Hardik and Arshdeep will skip the Australia series beginning September 20.

Squads

For World Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.

Standby players - Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.

For Australia T20Is: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.

For South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.

(With PTI inputs)