MUMBAI: There are not likely to be many surprises when the national selection committee, led by former India pacer Ajit Agarkar, meets at the BCCI headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday to pick the Indian team for the five-match T20I home series against England, which is scheduled to begin from January 22 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
As per reliable sources, the selectors will only pick the T20 side as of now, while the selection of the three-match ODI series against England-the ODIs are supposed to be played on February 6, 9 & 12- and the provisional squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai and Pakistan will be done later.
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TOI understands that as per the ICC rule, all the teams are supposed to submit their provisional squads by 23.59 on January 12, but the BCCI is likely to ask for an extension in that regard. Normally, all the teams are supposed to submit their provisional squads a month in advance, but this time the ICC has stretched that period to five weeks. Of course, the teams are allowed to change their squads later.
The Champions Trophy starts in Pakistan-UAE from February 19.
While fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are set to be given a break from the series, there is still uncertainty over whether veteran pacer Mohammed Shami, who has been bowling consistently across formats in domestic cricket -he took five wicket in three matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy-for the past month now, will be given a T20I recall.
Punjab and Punjab Kings’ left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy will spearhead the bowling attack in the T20Is, with explosive batsman Suryakumar Yadav leading the side.
Allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who performed well in the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia recently, scoring 298 runs @37.25 in five Tests including a century at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in the fourth Test, will be included in the T20I squad, and so will be off-spinning allrounder Washington Sundar and prolific opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (top run-getter in the 2024-25 BGT with 391 runs@43.44 in five Tests).
