Dhawan, Hardik to lead as India announce squad for New Zealand tour

Shikhar Dhawan and Hardik Pandya will captain India's ODI and T20I sides respectively in their upcoming tour of New Zealand.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced India's squad for their limited-overs tour of New Zealand, which will take place after the T20 World Cup 2022. India are scheduled to tour New Zealand for a six-match series, including three T20Is and as many ODIs.

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul were rested from the New Zealand tour. Dhawan had captained India earlier this year on a tour of West Indies and Zimbabwe.

With no Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant was named the vice-captain and wicket-keeper for both ODI and T20I series against the BlackCaps.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) pacer Kuldeep Sen earned his maiden India call-up as he was picked for the ODI series. The 26-year-old pacer has played seven List A games for Madhya Pradesh, picking up seven wickets with 3 for 30 being his best spell so far. Sen had a decent maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) season, where he picked up eight wickets in seven games for RR.

While Umran Malik made a comeback after missing a few series in the last couple of months, Shahbaz Ahmed retained his place in the India side after impressing in the home series against South Africa just before the T20 World Cup went underway.

The white-ball series between India and New Zealand will go underway on Nov. 18 with the first T20I at Sky Stadium, Wellington. The remaining two T20Is are going to be played on Nov. 20 and 22 at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui, and McLean Park, Napier respectively.

Following that, the focus will shift to the 50-over format with the first ODI scheduled to be played on Nov. 25 at Auckland's Eden Park. The second and third ODIs will be played on Nov. 27 and 30 at Seddon Park, Hamilton, and Hagley Oval, Christchurch respectively.

India are currently competing in the T20 World Cup 2022. In the Super 12s, Rohit and Co have triumphed in two games and lost one, which was against South Africa on Sunday (Oct. 30). India's next game is on Wednesday (Nov. 2) against Bangladesh at Adelaide Oval.

India's squad for T20I series vs New Zealand: Hardik Pandya (C), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), W Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.

India's squad for ODI series vs New Zealand: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arshdeep Singh, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar