BCCI Chief Selector Chetan Sharma on Monday announced Team India's squads for the upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand and ODI and Test series against Bangladesh. However, speedster Jasprit Bumrah has not been named in any of the squads and Chetan explained how the selection committee is managing the workload of Bumrah and he also accepted that the ace pacer was rushed from injury for the T20 World Cup.
It is important to note that Bumrah was ruled out of the T20 World Cup due to a back injury and as his replacement, Mohammed Shami was named in the squad for the tournament.
"Definitely, I say it every time that we have to manage the players and when we do that, the media ends up writing about how different players are playing in the lineup with different captains. We have to manage the workload. We hurried up with Jasprit Bumrah a bit, we tried as the World Cup was coming and see what happened. We are without Jasprit Bumrah for this World Cup," said the chief selector while replying to an NDTV question during a virtual press conference.
"The NCA and medical team are looking after him very well and he definitely will be a part of the team very soon. For the Bangladesh series, we are just a little cautious, we are not hurrying him up. I request the media to understand that there is a reason behind resting players. No selector is fond of changing the teams and captains. But there is so much cricket, we have to keep looking after the bodies of our players. Bumrah will be back soon, NCA is working alongside him," he stated further.
One notable omission from the white-ball squads is right-handed batter, Prithvi Shaw. The batter has been in the mixed form of late, registering scores of 6,10,32,19,134,29 and 55 in his last seven T20s while playing for Mumbai. He was also in good form in the series against New Zealand A and while playing for India A in a one-day match, he scored 77 runs as well.
"We basically are looking at Prithvi and we are in touch with him. He is doing very well, there is nothing wrong with him at all. We have to look at the setup in terms of players who have been playing before him, the guys who are performing are getting their chances. He will definitely get his chance with the way he has been batting. Selectors are in constant touch with him," said Chetan.
India squad for T20Is vs New Zealand:
Hardik Pandya (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.
Squad for ODIs vs New Zealand: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik.
Squad for ODIs vs Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, W Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Yash Dayal
Squad for Tests vs Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav.