Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah are likely to be rested for India’s upcoming three-match ODI series against New Zealand as the team management wants to keep them fresh for more important assignments, especially the T20 World Cup.
However, both players are expected to return to the five-match T20I series immediately after the ODIs.
The ODI series will be held on January 11 in Baroda, 14 in Rajkot and 18 in Indore.
This will be followed by the T20I series on January 21 (Nagpur), January 23 (Raipur), January 25 (Guwahati), January 28 (Visakhapatnam) and January 31 (Thiruvananthapuram).
The ODI squad is expected to be announced on January 4 or 5.
Considering the importance of Pandya and Bumrah in India’s T20 World Cup campaign, the Indian team management seems to have decided to keep them out of ODIs.
Pandya, who now features only in white-ball cricket, has not played ODIs since the Champions Trophy final in March due to fitness issues.
Bumrah, whose workload continues to be monitored, made his last ODI appearance in the 2023 World Cup finals.
However, Pandya is expected to play for Baroda in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy to fulfill BCCI’s mandatory participation requirement in domestic cricket.
He is likely to feature in Baroda’s remaining two league games scheduled at Rajkot on January 3, 6 and 8.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who played Delhi’s first two Vijay Hazare Trophy matches in Bengaluru on December 24 and 26, will return for the last league game against Railways at the KSCA ground in Alur on January 6, a senior Delhi and District Cricket Association (DTCA) official confirmed.
Kohli will then join the Indian team for the ODI series against New Zealand.
Like Kohli, Rohit Sharma played for Mumbai in the first two Vijay Hazare Trophy matches. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has confirmed that Rohit has completed his domestic duties for the season and will next play in the ODI series.
MCA said that Yashashvi Jaiswal, who has been unwell recently, will soon join the Mumbai team in Jaipur and play a couple of matches before joining the ODI squad that will assemble in Baroda on January 7.
Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dubey are also set to join the Mumbai squad soon.
There is uncertainty over Shreyas Iyer’s availability. The middle-order batsman has been out of international competition since late October due to a spleen injury.
However, it looks like he could feature in Mumbai’s Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Maharashtra on January 3 in Jaipur to assess his fitness.
Iyer, who has undergone surgery and is currently undergoing training at the BCCI Center of Excellence, is leaving no stone unturned ahead of the ODI squad selection, although clarity on his participation in the series is yet to emerge.