Defending champions India are out of the blocks quickly. They are the first team, among the 20, to name their squad for the ICC T20 World Cup to be held in February-March 2026. India are the co-hosts with Sri Lanka, who have named a provisional squad.
On Saturday, the senior selection committee named a 15-member squad for the prestigious tournament. The same squad will also face New Zealand in the five-match IDFC First Bank T20I series to be held in January next year.
The notable omission is Shubman Gill, who missed the fifth T20I against Sri Lanka on Friday. The vice-captaincy duties will be performed by all-rounder Axar Patel. Jitesh Sharma, who was the number one choice of the team management in the recent series, also misses out.
Ishan Kishan’s blazing form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he finished with 517 runs, has ensured his comeback to the Indian side. With Gill not there, the selectors have squeezed in Rinku Singh, who has been missing from the Indian team in the recent past.
There were no more surprises as the rest of the selection was as expected. Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana were the three frontline fast bowlers with two of them expected to make it to the final XI. Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav were the two frontline spinners, joined by Axar and Washington Sundar as the spin allrounders.
Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube were the seam-bowling allrounders to go with a power-packed middle order of captain Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Rinku. Opener Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Kishan rounded up the 15.
“It’s more to do with the combination that we want to play, or what the team management is comfortable with playing,” Ajit Agarkar, chairman of the selection committee, said on leaving out Gill and opting for a wicketkeeper-bat to open the innings.
Agarkar also said it was unfortunate the Jitesh had to miss out but it was just due to team combinations and not because he was not good. “Their thoughts are… who’s going to bat at the top? Abhishek, obviously, has done what he has done over the last year. And we felt the keeper at the top at this point gives us a lot more solidity than anywhere else in the team to play different combinations. There are only 15 that we could have picked. Someone has to miss out. It’s him. It’s not because he’s not a good player. Again, Jitesh hasn’t done too much wrong. These are the combinations that the team management is looking for.”
It’s not about Gill’s form, says India skipper Suryakumar
Gill, who had replaced Samson in the XI when named the vice-captain of the side, has not scored a single half-century in the 15 innings at the top. He has scored 291 runs at a strike rate of 137.26. He missed the last T20I against South Africa with a foot injury and Samson grabbed the opportunity by scoring 37 off 22 balls. It means Samson will get a longer run in the middle as the No.1 wicketkeeper-bat.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s form has not really bothered the selectors. He has gone the whole year without a half-century. Suryakumar too is not worried about the lack of runs from his blade. Hence, he said Gill’s form was not the issue in his non-selection.
“It’s not about his form or anything,” Suryakumar said. “It’s just about the combination right now. We wanted to have a keeper at the top. We wanted to have someone like Rinku Singh or maybe a Washington Sundar later on, to have a different combination. So that’s why we brought in that extra wicketkeeper at the top.
“And he’s a terrific player. And there’s no question about that. The only thing is that the situation is such that we need a keeper at the top of the order to have two-three good combinations which can win us the World Cup,” he said.
Squad for NZ T20Is and T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (VC), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (WK)
