The long wait has come to an end as the BCCI has announced India’s squad that will be a part of the upcoming T20I series at home. The squad will be playing against New Zealand. The tour is scheduled to commence with the T20Is on November 17 and the Test matches will be played starting from November 25. India lost T20 World Cup in the Super 12 round itself and with that, the captaincy period of Virat Kohli also came to an end. Now, as per the selector’s decision, Rohit Sharma will be India’s new captain for the T20I series and along with that a lot of players who were all a part of the World Cup squad have been rested for the T20I series.
The players have been playing for more than six months now. The likes of Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja have been kept away from the three T20Is matches set up against the Kiwis. To make a note of, the players who were in the reserves for the World Cup, including Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, and Axar Patel are also now in the main squad and for sure the players will have a chance to stake their claim with the next T20 World Cup.
It is only 11 months away and the shocking return post of Yuzvendra Chahal is the main thing seen in World Cup exclusion. India’s T20I squad includes Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj. The schedule for India vs New Zealand T20I is as follows
| Day | Date | Match | Venue |
| Wednesday | 17th Nov 2021 | 1st T20I | Jaipur |
| Friday | 19th Nov 2021 | 2nd T20I | Ranchi |
| Sunday | 21st Nov 2021 | 3rd T20I | Kolkata |
India ‘A’ squad for the South Africa tour is not out and the selection committee also picked the India ‘A’ squad for the South Africa tour. The tour begins on 23rd November 2021 in Bloemfontein having three four-day matches.
The tour of the South Africa series will have the two teams playing three Tests, three ODIs, and four T20Is. Talking about the ‘A’ squad, it includes Priyank Panchal (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Aparajith, Upendra Yadav (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Arzan Nagwaswalla. Their schedule is as follows:
| Day | Date | Match | Venue |
| Tue-Fri | 23rd to 26th Nov 2021 | 1st Four-day Match | Bloemfontein |
| Mon-Thu | 29th Nov to 2nd Dec 2021 | 2nd Four-day Match | Bloemfontein |
| Mon-Thu | 6th to 9th Dec 2021 | 3rd Four-day Match | Bloemfontein |
Well, all the cricket lovers, especially people who are supporting the Men in Blue, cannot just wait for the scheduled matches to begin!
