Indian star pacer Mohammad Shami returns to international cricket 14 months after being sidelined due to injury.
On Saturday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced its T20I squad for the England series in 2025 beginning on January 22 in Eden Gardens, Kolkata. India’s 15-member squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against England includes veteran seamer Mohammad Shami. Shami last featured for India in an international game 14 months before in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final in November 2023 and has been out of the playing squad after ankle surgery and knee issues.
Rishabh Pant and Yashavi Jaiswal rested from the team, and Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel will be options behind the wickets. While Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the team, Axar Patel is named as vice-captain. Jasprit Bumrah has also been left out due to back issues during the Sydney Test.
Although they were absent from India’s recent T20I series against South Africa due to their participation in the Test tour in Australia, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Washington Sundar have been included in the squad.
On the other hand, Jitesh Sharma, Avesh Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Yash Dayal, and Vijaykumar Vyshak, who were part of the T20I squad in South Africa, have not been selected this time. The series also includes young guns Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, and Rinku Singh.
After the T20I series against England, India will play three ODIs in Nagpur, Cuttack, and Ahmedabad. These will be India’s only ODI matches before the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, which Pakistan and Dubai will be hosting starting from 19 February.
India Squad for England T20I Series 2025
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk)
