India to blood young guns in T20 series vs Zimbabwe

PTI

New Delhi, June 24

Dashing Assam batter Riyan Parag today became the first north-eastern cricketer to get an India call-up as a new-look T20 squad led by Shubman Gill was unveiled for next month’s five-match series in Zimbabwe which will not feature any of the senior stars. The series, starting July 6, will be held entirely in Harare.

Squad

Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Nitish Reddy, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande

The national selection committee didn’t pick any of the first team players, who are currently playing in the T20 World Cup.

It is believed that the selectors want to broaden the pool of players looking at the 2026 T20 World Cup in India.

The announced squad marks a landmark for 21-year-old Parag, who had a stellar IPL season for the Rajasthan Royals with 573 runs which put him in the reckoning.

Joining him from the RR camp were his franchise captain Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel as the two wicketkeepers in the side.

Punjab skipper Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy are among the three rookies in the squad of 15 in which only Mukesh Kumar is on the wrong side of 30s.The average age of the squad is roughly around 25.

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