The Indian Cricket Team is having a busy schedule in the ongoing months as they play back-to-back cricket with the start of the West Indies tour. The Men in Blue have an Ireland T20I series, Asian Games, Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup coming ahead of them. Meanwhile, there have been different teams chosen for most of these competitions. Recently, India's T20I team for the three-match Ireland series was announced and Jasprit Bumrah was named T20I skipper for the first time. But there are a sea of changes made to the team that took on Ireland last time the Men in Blue toured the European nation.
Changes made to the Indian team
Notably, there are as many as 12 changes to the Indian team that faced Ireland in 2022 in a two-match series. India had a 17-member squad then and it was led by Hardik Pandya with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being the deputy. For the August 2023 series, India named a 15-member squad for the three-match series.
T20I captain Pandya and pacer Bhuvneshwar remain absent whereas Jasprit Bumrah has been named captain for the T20Is. Ruturaj Gaikwad will be the vice-captain.
Centurion Deepak Hooda dropped, big overhaul in batting and bowling
Hundred-maker from the second T20I against Ireland in 2022 Deepak Hooda will not be part of the Indian team now. He became only the fourth Indian batter to hit a ton in the shortest format but is struggling for form after that. Notably, there are some other big changes made in the batting and bowling departments. Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik and Axar Patel (all-rounder) will be the batters omitted. Meanwhile, there are some bowlers too not taking the flight to Ireland including Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Only five players from that squad included
There are only five players from that Ireland series that will feature in the upcoming Irish series. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan are the only players from that series to play in the upcoming one. This means India have called in ten players for the series.
The upcoming Ireland series will begin on August 18, followed by the second T20I on August 20 and the final one on August 23.
India's squad for T20I series against Ireland: 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
