Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh receive maiden India call-up ahead of South Africa series

Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh received their maiden India call-up as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced squads on Sunday for a home T20I series against South Africa.

KL Rahul was named captain for India's upcoming five-match T20I series against South Africa, with Rishabh Pant his deputy. The games are scheduled to take place in Delhi, Cuttack, Vishakapatnam, Rajkot, and Bengaluru.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) fast bowler Umran has had a fine run, having picked up 21 wickets in 13 games. Jammu and Kashmir's Umran has consistently clocked 150 km/h. While he has been a tad expensive, he has made regular breakthroughs, including an incredible five-wicket haul against the table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT).

Back in 2021, Umran came in SRH as T.Natarajan's replacement, who had tested positive for COVID-19. Later, the Orange Army retained the seamer, along with captain Kane Williamson and Abdul Samad ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction.

While Arshdeep is not a big wicket-taker, but the Punjab Kings (PBKS) medium pacer is known for his economical spells. He has 10 wickets in 13 games at an economy of 7.71. Both Malik and Arshdeep are currently in action at Wankhede Stadium as SRH and PBKS are playing their final game of IPL 2022.

Arshdeep, who played the 2018 U19 World Cup in New Zealand, featured in two games as Prithvi Shaw and Co had preferred the trio of Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Ishan Porel in their fast bowling department.

BCCI's selection committee has also named India's 17-member Test squad for the fifth rescheduled Test against England to be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 1-5. India currently lead the Test series 2-1.

India's Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

India's T20I squad: KL Rahul (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vc)(wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik