KOHLI GETS A BREAK
Captain asked to put feet up for upcoming Twenty20 series against Bangladesh
Mumbai, Oct. 24: India captain Virat Kohli was on Thursday rested from the upcoming three-match T20 series against Bangladesh while Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube was rewarded with a maiden call-up for his “phenomenal” exploits with the India A team.
The prolific Sanju Samson and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal returned to the side for the T20 Internationals.
The 24-year-old Samson from Kerala has played his only T20I, against Zimbabwe in 2015. A regular in the India A set up, Samson has been rewarded for a good Vijay Hazare Trophy season, having amassed 410 runs in eight innings, including a double-century earlier this month.
Dashing all-rounder Hardik Pandya was not discussed in the selection meeting as he underwent a surgery in the UK for a back injury this month, paving the way for the 26year-old rookie Dube’s inclusion in the shortest format.
Dube pipped Vijay Shankar as the second choice all-rounder, primarily based on his big-hitting prowess.
Chairman of selection committee MSK Prasad said, “You can see, earlier we had Hardik Pandya, then we also tried Vijay Shankar. All of us agreed in unison that the role we have, he (Dube) fits in very well.
“He bats aggressively, his performances in the India A Series in West Indies and also against South Africa in the ODIs (for India A) was phenomenal. He has gone up by leaps and bounds, a notch higher and we are convinced about it.”
As has been the case in the past, Rohit Sharma will lead the squad in Kohli’s absence.
Apart from the threematch T20 series which starts in New Delhi on November 3, followed by matches at Rajkot and Nagpur on November 7 and 10 respectively, Bangladesh will also play two Tests as part of the World Championship, in Indore and Kolkata, from November 14-18 and November 22-26 respectively.
The squad for the Test series against the neighbours remained unchanged after India’s 3-0 whitewash of South Africa recently. Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who picked up four wickets on his Test debut against South Africa, was not considered for selection.
Shahbaz, though, was not part of the original squad against the Proteas, coming in as replacement for the injured Kuldeep Yadav ahead of the Ranchi Test.