Why Christmas Feels Different for Many Bajans This Year

The BCCI selectors have named Ravi Bishnoi and Shreyas Iyer as replacements for the injured Washington Sundar and Tilak Varma for India‘s upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting January 21. Iyer, however, has been added to the squad only for the first three games, as Tilak had not been ruled out of the entire series.

Spin-bowling allrounder Washington underwent scans after “reporting an acute onset discomfort in his lower rib area while bowling” in the first ODI against New Zealand on January 11 and was diagnosed with a side strain. He will report to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) for further management of his injury after a few days’ rest. He had been replaced by Ayush Badoni for the ongoing ODIs against New Zealand.

Middle-order batter Tilak had been ruled out of the first three T20Is after undergoing testicular surgery in Rajkot recently.

Iyer last played a T20I back in December 2023, against Australia at home, and had fallen out of India’s T20I plans after that. He has not played any T20s since the IPL final last year and missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s while recovering from a spleen injury but returned to domestic cricket for the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy for Mumbai and is playing in the current ODI series.

Legspinner Bishnoi, meanwhile, last played a T20I against England almost a year ago in Mumbai. He also featured in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, after playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he picked up nine wickets in seven games with an economy rate of 8.72.

The five T20Is will be played on January 21 in Nagpur, January 23 in Raipur, January 25 in Guwahati, January 28 in Visakhapatnam and January 31 in Thiruvananthapuram. This will be India’s last series before the T20 World Cup starting February 7.

India’s updated T20I squad for New Zealand series

Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (first three T20Is), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-capt), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravi Bishnoi.

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