India veteran speedster Mohammed Shami set to make his international comeback after nearly 14 months. He last played an international game against Australia during ODI World Cup 2023 final at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on November 19. Since then the veteran speedster missed all the cricketing action due to an ankle injury for which he underwent surgery in the UK last year.
Shami who is all set to make a comeback in international cricket before the Champions Trophy 2025 will not play all the matches of the five-match series.
As per PTI, Shami has been picked in the T20I squad against England because he will be part of India's squad for the Champions Trophy and will be gradually working on his bowling load. He is not going to play all five games against England.
Suryakumar Yadav-led India will play a match T20Is series scheduled to start from January 22 where the first match will be played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The team made several changes in the T20I squad that featured against South Africa where Nitish Kumar Reddy replaced Ramandeep Singh. Avesh Khan and Yash Dayal were replaced by Shami and Harshit Rana, respectively.
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The four spinners in the squad are Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar.
Incidentally, Shubman Gill, who was made the vice-captain after the T20 World Cup 2024, hasn't found a place in the team.
Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal will open the innings followed by Tilak Varma and skipper Surya.
Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh are expected to bat at No. 5 five and No. 6, respectively, and they will be followed by Axar in the batting order.
The T20I series against England starts with the first T20I in Kolkata on January 22, followed by matches in Chennai (Jan 25), Rajkot (Jan 28), Pune (Jan 31) and Mumbai (Feb 2).
Team: 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).