Mumbai, Jan 11: The Men’s Selection Committee brought back pacer Mohammad Shami, and spinner Varun Chakravarthy while resting wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant in India’s 15-member squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against England starting from January 22 in Kolkata.

India pace spearhead Mohammad Shami made an expected return to the senior national team following an ankle injury and subsequent that kept him out of action for more than a year. Shami has not appeared for the nation since India's loss against Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup final, where the pacer was the leading wicket-taker in the tournament.

Shami made a successful comeback to professional cricket through Bengal’s fifth-round match in the Ranji Trophy against Madhya Pradesh at Indore, where he took seven wickets in his team’s win.

He also led the Bengal bowling attack in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy recently, picking up nine wickets in 11 games at an economy rate of 7.85, with a best of 3-21 against Hyderabad. However, the pacer missed the entire five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series as the injury had flared up again.

The selectors also made some other key changes.

Pant has been rested by the committee with Sanju Samson retaining his place in the side following an excellent performance by the 30-year-old in-form batter during India’s tour of South Africa in which he scored two centuries.

With Kuldeep Yadav yet to return to competitive action and still undergoing rehab for hernia surgery, Varun Chakaravarthy, who was stellar for India in its T20I series wins against Bangladesh and South Africa, is named in the squad following his impressive outings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as he took 18 wickets, including consecutive five-wicket hauls, to be the leading wicket-taker in the tournament.

Nitesh Kumar Reddy has also been named in the squad after his impressive performances in the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk).

The schedule:

Jan 22: first T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Jan 25: 2nd T20I at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Jan 28: 3rd T20I at Niranjan Shah Stadium, Rajkot

Jan 31: 4th T20I at MCA Stadium, Pune

Feb 2: 5th T20I at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

(IANS)

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