Rohit, Shami return, Samson dropped as India announce T20I squad for New Zealand series

The Indian cricket board announced India's squad for Twenty20 International (T20I) series against New Zealand on Sunday where they surprisingly dropped Sanju Samson, while Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami are set to return.

Virat Kohli will lead the side that will have Rishabh Pant as the lone wicketkeeper for the five-match series, which is scheduled to begin on Jan. 24 in Auckland. The first two matches will be played at Eden Park, while the other games will take place Seddon Park, Hamilton, Westpac Stadium, Wellington and Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui.

Spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who recently made a comeback following a long injury lay-off, has been retained along with opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan. Both the players returned to the Indian side during India's two-match T20I series against Sri Lanka last week.

Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya continues to struggle to regain his fitness. He was not picked for the New Zealand tour after he failed the mandatory fitness test and as a result, he was also pulled out from India A squad for the New Zealand series.

Tamil Nadu skipper Vijay Shankar has been sent as Pandya's replacement to New Zealand for the A-tour. India A will play two 50-over warm-up games, three List A games and two four-day 'matches against New Zealand A team.

Kohli and Co utterly dominated in their 2-0 win over Sri Lanka. They are now gearing up to take on Australia for a three-match One-Day Internationals (ODIs), which will begin on Jan. 14 before leaving for New Zealand.

India T20I squad for New Zealand series: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Manish Pandey, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Shami.