Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav, and Shahbaz Ahmed added in the India squad for the T20I series against South Africa

Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed (Image Credit: Twitter)

Indian Cricket Board selectors have made some significant changes in the team leading up to the three-match T20I series against South Africa. Ahead of the series, three players such as Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, and Shahbaz Ahmed have been added to the squad. Yadav was part of the team during the Australia series. The right-arm pacer was added after Mohammed Shami tested positive for COVID19.

Yadav played only one game during the series and proved costly. This is the reason he sat out for the rest of the series. However, with Shami yet to recover, the 2013 Champions Trophy winner has been added to the squad. On the other hand, middle-order batter Deepak Hooda also got injured. He has been replaced by Shreyas Iyer who last played for the Men In Blue against the West Indies.

Iyer is part of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 squad as a reserve player. Talking about Hooda, he went to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for 'further management of his injury'. It will be interesting to see when the right-hander recovers. Also, Bengal all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed has also been added to the squad. The left-handed all-rounder was playing for India A in the One-Day game against New Zealand A.

Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar headed to NCA for conditioning-related work

On the other hand, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been rested for the series. They are headed to the NCA for conditioning-related work. The former is expected to replace Hardik Pandya in the playing for the series. Notably, Ahmed was also called up for the ODI series in Zimbabwe last month.

However, he didn't play a single game during the series. He had replaced Washington Sundar, who got injured right before the series.

India squad for South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed.