Hardik named captain for New Zealand T20I series

ADELAIDE: All-rounder Hardik Pandya was on Monday named the India captain for the three-match T20I series in New Zealand as the BCCI announced three different leaders for four upcoming assignments across formats.

The T20I series will begin on November 18 in Wellington, four days after the conclusion of the ongoing World Cup in Australia. Veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan will captain the team in the ODI series in New Zealand, starting November 25 in Auckland. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will be the vice-captain of the team in both the New Zealand series.

Regular captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and Ravichandran Ashwin have been rested for the New Zealand tour as part of “workload management of players”.

Rohit will be back to lead the side in the ODI and Test series in Bangladesh. Kohli (both ODI and Test) and Ashwin (only Test) too will return to the team for the Bangladesh tour, where India will play three ODIs and two Tests, beginning December 4.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was ruled out of the T20 World Cup after suffering a knee injury during the Asia Cup, will make a comeback against Bangladesh. Selection committee chairman Chetan Sharma asserted that different teams have been picked to manage the players’ workload.

“Nobody asked for rest. All the decisions are part of workload management of players. We have reports from the medical team on who to give rest when and how to manage them,” Chetan said during a virtual interaction.

Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who missed out on the T20 World Cup due to a stress fracture on his back, has not been selected for the two tours as he is yet to fully recover from his injury and the selectors are in no mood to rush his return.