Rohit to lead India in T20Is against New Zealand; Kohli rested

Star opener Rohit Sharma will captain the 16-member India squad in the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.

With Virat Kohli relinquishing the T20I captaincy, the Chetan Sharma-led National Selection Committee appointed Rohit to lead India in the three T20Is starting from November 17.

KL Rahul will be Sharma's deputy for the series while the likes of Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja have been given a rest.

Meanwhile, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshal Patel, and Avesh Khan are the new faces in the squad.


The selection committee also picked the India 'A' squad for the South Africa tour scheduled to start from November 23 in Bloemfontein. The team will play three four-day matches during the tour.

India's T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj

India 'A' squad for South Africa tour: Priyank Panchal (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Aparajith, Upendra Yadav (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Arzan Nagwaswalla - IANS