India named uncapped player Shivam Dube in the T20I team to take on Bangladesh while Virat Kohli was rested. Sanju Samson, the Kerala wicket-keeper batsman, earned a recall after a long interval following his Vijay Hazare exploits.
MS Dhoni, meanwhile continues to be absent from the team and MSK Prasad, the national selector, has confirmed that India are moving on from Dhoni. Rohit Sharma will lead the team in Kohli’s absence. Dube’s inclusion comes on the back of Hardik Pandya’s continued absence.
“You can see, earlier we had Hardik Pandya, then we also tried Vijay Shankar. All of us in unison, along with captain Rohit, felt that [given] the role that he has to deliver, Shivam Dube fits in much better. Because he really bats aggressively, extremely well. His performances in the India A series in West Indies and also against South Africa A in the ODIs was phenomenal. I think he has gone up by leaps and bounds with regards to his skillset and we were very, very much convinced about it,” chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said.
“[Samson] comes in as a batsman who can keep wicket. Samson was there in the Indian T20 team 4-5 years ago. His problem was inconsistency. In the last one year or so, he has had a fantastic IPL followed by a good domestic and India A series against South Africa. And he had a wonderful Vijay Hazare as well. He is more consistent now and that is the reason we thought of drafting him in the squad.
“We’re looking at younger options after the World Cup, so you can understand our thought process. We definitely had a chat with Dhoni and he also endorses our view of backing youngsters,” Prasad said of Pant and Samson.
T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur
Test squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk)