India vs Bangladesh: Virat Kohli rested for T20Is, Rohit Sharma to lead; Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson receive call-ups

India skipper Virat Kohli has been rested for the T20I series against Bangladesh, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squads for the Tests as well.

The 30-year-old’s workload was a talking point in the build-up to the squad announcement and there were reports that he could be rested.

Rohit Sharma has been named skipper of the team for the T20I series, while Yuzvendra Chahal makes his return to the shortest format. Shivam Dube has received his maiden call-up to the senior national team, for the T20Is. Ravindra Jadeja, who featured in the T20Is against South Africa, has not found a place for the Bangladesh series along with Navdeep Saini who is injured.

Sanju Samson returns to the senior national setup for the first time in four years. He played his only T20I back in 2015 against Zimbabwe.

Kohli, however, will return to lead for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh.  The Test squad is unchanged. Shahbaz Nadeem, who was called up to the squad as a cover for the injured Kuldeep Yadav in the last Test and ended up making his debut, doesn’t find a place in the Test squad.

While Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah are recovering from back surgeries, MS Dhoni continues to remain absent.

Bangladesh are scheduled to tour India to play three T20I and two Test matches. The T20I series begins in New Delhi on 3 November, before moving to Rajkot (7 November) and Nagpur (10 November). The two Tests will be played in Indore (14-18 November) and Kolkata (22-26 November).

India recently completed a clean sweep over South Africa after thrashing them 3-0 in the Test series. Rohit Sharma enjoyed his first series as a Test opener as he amassed 529 runs in just four innings, slamming two centuries and a double ton.

Since the ICC World Cup semi-final exit, India have been playing back-to-back series. They outplayed West Indies in the Caribbean in all formats in July-August and remained unbeaten on the tour, although one ODI was abandoned and a Test was drawn. This was followed by the recently-drawn T20I series at home in South Africa, which kickstarted their long home season.

Earlier on Wednesday, former skipper Sourav Ganguly officially took over as BCCI president and is likely to meet Kohli soon.

India’s squad for T20I series against Bangladesh:

Rohit Sharma (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant(wk), Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur

Squad for Test series against Bangladesh:

Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Saha (wk), R Jadeja, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant.

With inputs from ANI