Shreyas Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi have made it to India’s T20I squad for the five-match series against New Zealand. Notably, both of these players have replaced Tilak Varma and Washington Sundar, respectively, on the roster. Earlier, Washington Sundar was ruled out of the ODI series due to a side strain. However, he is completely out of the series as Ravi Bishnoi is set to replace him for the whole of the series. Meanwhile, Tilak Varma was set to miss three matches of the T20I series. So Shreyas Iyer will feature in first three T20I games instead of Tilak Varma. Washington Sundar earlier suffered an injury in 1st ODI against Black Caps Indian Washington Sundar underwent scans after reporting an acute onset of discomfort in his lower rib area while bowling during the first ODI against New Zealand at the BCA Stadium, Vadodara, on 11 January. This was followed by an in-person consultation with an expert. He has been diagnosed with a side strain and has been advised rest for a few days, following which he will report to the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) for further management of his injury. Shreyas Iyer replaces Tilak Varma, recovering from testicular surgery Tilak had been ruled out of the first three T20Is after undergoing testicular surgery in Rajkot recently. So Iyer will feature in the team on his place. Iyer last played a T20I back in December 2023, against Australia at home, but had been dropped from India’s T20I plans. Bishnoi, meanwhile, last played his T20I against England almost a year ago in Mumbai. The five T20Is will be played on January 21 in Nagpur, January 23 in Raipur, January 25 in Guwahati, January 28 in Visakhapatnam and the last one on January 31 in Trivandrum. This will be India’s last series before the T20 World Cup starting February 7. India’s updated T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Shreyas Iyer (first three T20Is), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (VC), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ravi Bishnoi Post navigation WATCH| Two centuries, 107m six and Babar Azam’s fielding blunder:Steve Smith, David Warner slam centuries in BBL frenzy; Babar suffers more embarrassment? India U-19 face Bangladesh first time since Mustafizur Rahman row:Ayush Mhatre’s side won against USA, will the two captains shake hands?
