India’s tearaway pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be returning to action after recovering from back injury with Ireland T20I series. Bumrah has been named the captain of the Indian T20I team as Hardik Pandya has been rested for the series.
Ruturaj Gaikwad who was named T20I captain for Asian Games 2023 has been named as Gaikwad’s deputy. After recovering from a recurring back injury that ruled him out of the ODI squad, Prasidh Krishna will be making his T20I debut.
Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma and Tilak Varma are likely to make their T20I debut ahead of representing India in Asian Games 2023 where they will get a direct entry into the quarter-final stage along with three other teams based on International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings.
Bumrah has been out of the action for more than 10 months. His last international match was a T20I against Australia on September 25, 2022. He remained wicketless and conceded 50 runs from his quota of four overs against the Aaron Finch-led side.
This T20I series will work as a litmus test for Bumrah’s fitness. If he remains fit, the pacer is likely to be back in the ODI squad for Asia Cup which will be played on Sri Lankan soil barring a handful of group stage matches of Babar Azam-led Pakistan. Bumrah’s return will also be a big boost for India head of ODI World Cup 2023.
On the other hand, Krishna played his last ODI in August 2022 against Zimbabwe. He has had a good record for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Indian Premier League (IPL). The Karnataka pacer has taken 68 wickets from 72 T20s at a strike rate of 23.1. He has an economy rate of 23.1.
The T20I series will be played from August 18 to August 23. All the matches will be played at The Village, Dublin.
India T20I squad: Jasprit Bumrah (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan
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