Hardik Pandya returns as India announce squad for South Africa T20Is

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced India’s 15-member squad for the upcoming T20I series against South Africa, with Hardik Pandya making a return after an injury layoff of over two months.

India’s T20I vice-captain Shubman Gill, sidelined with a neck injury since the first Test in Kolkata, has also been included in the squad. 

His participation will depend on fitness clearance from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (COE). Suryakumar Yadav has been named captain for the five-match series starting on December 9.

Rinku Singh and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who toured Australia recently, were the only omissions from India’s previous T20I squad. 

Rinku’s only outing since hitting the winning runs in the Asia Cup final against Pakistan was in the washed-out Brisbane T20I. He is currently featuring in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Uttar Pradesh.

It is pertinent to mention that the five T20Is will take place on December 9, 11, 14, 17 and 19 in Cuttack, New Chandigarh, Dharamsala, Lucknow and Ahmedabad. 

South Africa won the two-Test series 2-0, while India led the ODI series 1-0 when the T20I squad was announced during the second ODI in Raipur.

India T20I Squad vs South Africa:

Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar.

*Subject to Fitness