Team India's head coach Rahul Dravid revealed the reason behind Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer's absence from the team ahead of the first T20I match against Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 10. India made some big changes to their first T20I assignment of the year calling back veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma but dropped some of the regular names ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
During a pre-match press conference, Dravid said that the wicketkeeper batter was not available for the team selection. Dravid revealed that Ishan had asked for a break from cricket during the recent South Africa tour and will play domestic cricket once he becomes available.
Ishan has been a regular part of both white-ball teams in recent matches and scored two fifties against Australia in November-December last year. He was also part of the Test squad on the South Africa tour but withdrew his name to take a break.
Dravid confirmed that there is a 'disciplinary reason' behind Ishan's snub and the player hasn't made himself available for the selection.
"There is no disciplinary reason," Dravid said in the pre-match press conference. "Ishan was not available for the selection. He had asked for a break during the South Africa tur and we agreed to. He has not made himself available for the selection yet and will play domestic cricket once he becomes available."
On Shreyas Iyer's snub, Dravid admitted that the star batter was not selected due to competition for places in the T20I team. David also revealed that the returning Virat Kohli will miss the first game due to personal reason and Yashasvi Jaiswal will open with Rohit Sharma in the first match in Mohali on Thursday.
India squad for Afghanistan series: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
