India Name 16-Man T20I Squad for New Zealand Tour, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Recalled

The BCCI has announced India's 16-member squad for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand. Shreyas Iyer will captain the side, with Tilak Varma as vice-captain. The squad was named on October 6.

The biggest selection call is the return of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The 36-year-old pacer is back in India's T20I set-up after nearly four years. His last T20I was against New Zealand in November 2022.

Here is the full squad:

• Batters: Shreyas Iyer (c), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Tilak Varma (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk)
• All-rounders: Abhishek Sharma, Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube
• Bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prince Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

The batting group is built around Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma and young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, with Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson as the two wicketkeeper-batters. Ishan arrives in good touch, having hit an unbeaten 80 off 46 balls against Sri Lanka in the Asian Games semi-final.

Depth is a big feature of this squad. Five all-rounders, Abhishek Sharma, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Naman Dhir and Nitish Kumar Reddy, give the captain plenty of options. Abhishek made 61 off 28 balls in the Asian Games final against Pakistan and became the second-fastest batter in T20 history to 400 career sixes during that knock.

The bowling mixes pace and spin. Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Prince Yadav make up the pace group, while Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel handle the spin department. Dube and Nitish can also chip in with the ball.

Several of these players, including Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma and Ishan Kishan, were part of the India side that won gold at the Asian Games, beating Pakistan by 19 runs in the final. Tilak finished unbeaten on 51 off 22 in that match. Iyer led that team, having taken over the T20I captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav this year.

The T20Is are the first leg of a tour that runs from October 22 to December 1 and also includes five ODIs and two Tests. This announcement covers only the T20I squad. All five T20Is start at 12:30 PM IST.