Shubman Gill will lead India’s T20I squad for the five-match series in Zimbabwe, beginning July 6.
Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Riyan Parag and Tushar Deshpande have all been rewarded for their fabulous IPL performances.
Dhruv Jurel has also been picked as the second wicketkeeper, his first call-up to the T20I squad after making his Test debut earlier this year against England.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson are the only two players from the T20 World Cup squad who will be travelling to Zimbabwe. All other World Cup players have been given a break after the tournament ends on June 29.
Rinku Singh, Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed, the reserves in the T20 World
Cup squad, have also been included.
NCA chief VVS Laxman will be the interim head coach since Rahul Dravid’s tenure will end with the T20 World Cup.
Tilak Varma, who is undergoing rehab at the NCA for an injury suffered during the IPL, has not been included.
This will be a huge opportunity for Assam’s Parag who showed huge maturity during his sixth IPL season for Rajasthan Royals. Batting at No. 4, Parag scored 573 runs in
16 innings, third behind Kohli (741) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (583). Equally impressive was Abhishek, the Sunrisers Hyderabad opener, who accumulated 484.
