India’s white-ball specialists asked to report in Ahmedabad on March 1 - Reports
India’s white-ball specialists who are currently playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020-21 have been asked to report in Ahmedabad on March 1 ahead of India’s T20I series against England, PTI reports.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a 19-man squad for the series, which starts on March 12 in Ahmedabad.
Currently, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Rahul Tewatia are taking part in the domestic List-A tournament and are in their respective bio-bubbles across five different cities.
"Shikhar is supposed to report in Ahmedabad along with others on March 1. As far as we know, all the white ball specialists have been asked to play 2 to 3 games to be in touch as they will again enter a new bubble with all the COVID-19 protocols in place," a senior DDCA official stated as quoted by PTI.
India vs England 2021: Cricketers arriving in Ahmedabad will be tested for COVID-19
While Manish Pandey and Sanju Samson have been axed from the T20I squad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rishabh Pant are making a comeback.
Former U19 skipper Ishan Kishan is the back-up keeper and will replace Sanju Samson, who has been dropped after just one series.
All the Indian cricketers arriving in Ahmedabad will be tested for COVID-19 and will be placed in a separate bio-bubble ahead of the T20I series.
All five matches of the series will be played at the Motera Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The first T20I will be played on Friday, March 12. The other four games will be played on March 14, 16, 18 and 20.
India vs England 2021: India's squad
Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur