Mumbai: In a big move, BCCI has left out Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Indian T20 team for the upcoming Mastercard New Zealand Tour of India.The BCCI has recalled Prithvi Shaw for the T20 series against New Zealand. He has been rewarded for his record-breaking triple century in the Ranji Trophy match against Assam at Guwahati.
By dropping Rohit and Kohli, BCCI has made a statement of moving on from them and making the team keeping future in mind. Earlier, both Kohli and Rohit had made themselves available for Indian T20 Team, but BCCI seems to be not too amused.Hardik Pandya has been named captain in place of Rohit, and Suryakumar Yadav has been made his deputy. Interestingly, the BCCI has named two wicketkeepers Ishan Kishan and Jitesh Sharma.
The BCCI however clarified that KL Rahul and Axar Patel, have not been dropped, but were unavailable for the New Zealand home series due to family commitments.However, Rohit has been retained as ODI captain and Hardik Pandya as his deputy. Kohli also retains his place, especially after back-to-back centuries in the ODIs.The BCCI has called up KS Bharat to don the gloves behind the stumps.(UNI)