Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed and Shreyas Iyer drafted into India’s Squad for South Africa T20Is

The Indian selectors have added pacer Umesh Yadav, uncapped left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed and batter Shreyas Iyer to India’s squad for the three-match T20I series against South Africa, starting on Wednesday in Thiruvananthapuram.

Umesh was named as Mohammed Shami’s replacement for the T20I series against Australia as the pacer got sidelined after being found COVID-19 positive. Shami is yet to recover from it fully and hence, Umesh has been named in the squad for this series against the Proteas once again.

Iyer, who had been named in the traveling reserves for the T20 World Cup in Australia, has been added into this squad as Deepak Hooda’s replacement. Hooda picked up a back injury during India’s training session ahead of the third T20I against Australia and was subsequently ruled out of that contest as well. He is also out of this series now and Iyer has been named in his place.

Apart from Umesh and Iyer, uncapped Bengal all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed has also earned a maiden call-up into the national side. He has been added as an all-round cover as India lost Hooda to injury and Hardik Pandya has also been rested for ‘conditioning related work’ at the NCA. Along with Hardik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also been rested from this series for the same reason.

Arshdeep Singh, who was rested during the Australia series for his conditioning at the NCA, has drafted into this squad once again. He stands a good chance of playing all three T20Is against South Africa in Bhuvneshwar’s absence.

India are scheduled to play three T20Is on September 28, October 2 and 4 in Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Indore respectively. Rohit Sharma will be seen leading the side once again whereas KL Rahul has been named as his deputy.

India squad for South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed.