NEW DELHI: Rohit Sharma has been named India’s new T20I captain as the BCCI on Tuesday announced a 16-member squad that will play three T20Is against New Zealand starting later this month.
The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) tweeted that the 34-year-old opening batsman was “named the T20I (Twenty20 International) Captain for India”, replacing Virat Kohli after the side were dumped out of the World Cup.
The tour by New Zealand begins on November 17 with the first of three T20 games followed by two Test matches. Kohli has been rested against the Kiwis along with pacemen Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The selectors have made a number of changes to the squad that featured in the United Arab Emirates, bringing in the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel, while dropping all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Kohli, who took over T20I captaincy in 2017, had announced his decision to step down in September, citing his “immense workload”. He remains the skipper of the One-Day and Test teams.
The announcement follows news that former batting legend Rahul Dravid was replacing Ravi Shastri as the coach for all formats following the World Cup, where India failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
Rohit Sharma made his debut in 2007 for the national team, initially playing limited-overs cricket before being included in the Test team in 2013. Sharma also captained the Mumbai Indians to victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) five times.
Sharma has played 116 T20 international matches, scoring 3,029 runs and averages over 32. He has amassed 9,205 runs in 227 One-Day Internationals and 3,047 from 43 Test matches at an average of nearly 47.
India faced sharp criticism at home over their dismal performance in the T20 World Cup, including their humiliating defeat at the hands of arch-rival Pakistan as well as New Zealand.
Squad:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj
