Hardik Pandya returns for SA T20Is; Shubman Gill picked subject to fitness

India’s talismanic all-rounder Hardik Pandya has returned to the team’s T20I squad for the five-match T20I series against South Africa. Pandya last played in the Asia Cup and had to miss the summit clash against Pakistan with a niggle.

But eventually, it was the left quadricep injury that kept him out of action for a and he underwent rehabilitation at the COE. Pandya recently scored a match-winning knock of 77 runs for Baroda against Punjab in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Shubman Gill has also been added to the squad, but his selection is subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. Gill suffered a neck spasm on the second day of the opening Test match against South Africa at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, and was ruled out of the second Test and the ODI series.

Nitish Reddy and Rinku Singh have been excluded from the squad, whereas Jasprit Bumrah returns to the squad after he was rested for the ODI series against South Africa.

The first match of the T20I series will be played on December 9 in Cuttack. The teams then travel to Mullanpur (New Chandigarh) for the second T20I on December 11, followed by a trip to Dharamsala for the third game on December 14. Lucknow will host the fourth T20I on December 17 while the series ends with the fifth T20I in Ahmedabad on December 19.

India squad for T20I series against South Africa: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar