Dhoni returns for T20 series against New Zealand

December 24, 2018

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Good news for fans of former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. In addition to the one-day squad for Australia tour, Dhoni’s name is included in the T20 squad for the New Zealand tour. On the tour of Australia, the series of four Test matches is currently at 1-1. Team India has announced the ODI series two days before the start of the third Test. Also, the Indian team has been selected for the one-day and Twenty20 series to be played in New Zealand. On Monday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) informed about the squads through tweets.

Dhoni is returning to the T20 team. Dhoni is in the team for a series of three T-20 matches against New Zealand. Dhoni was not picked in the last Twenty20 series against the West Indies and Australia, and the opportunity to fill the place was given to wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik. Dhoni will be in the role of wicketkeeper in both the current ODI series of Australia and New Zealand. Apart from this, he will also be a wicket-keeper in the T-20 series against the Kiwis. Rishabh Pant has been dropped from the ODI squad, while Dinesh Karthik has returned to ODI squad.

A series of three ODI matches will be played in Australia, which starts on January 12. The first ODI will be played in Sydney in Australia, where the Indian team will play the fourth and final match of the Test series. After that, a New Zealand tour comprising of 5 ODI’s will be played against the Kiwis the first of which will be played in Napier on January 23.

For the Australia and New Zealand tour, the 16-member ODI team of India is:

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuswendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jaspreet Bumrah, Khalil Ahmed, Mohammad Shami

For the New Zealand round, the T-20 team of 15-member India is:

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Kunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuswendra Chahal, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jaspreet Bumrah, Khalil Ahmad

Dhoni was chosen for this reason

Dhoni’s return was astonishing, because he was dropped out of the T-20 team against Australia last month. The selectors had then argued that they were looking for another wicketkeeper. After this it was thought that his T20 career was almost over. Justifying Dhoni’s selection, a BCCI official said, “Now only eight ODIs are to be played, so the selector wants to give Dhoni full time before the World Cup. Three T20 means that he will be playing 11 matches in the next one month. ‘

All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has been out of the team due to injury, has also returned. He has been selected in both the ODI and T20 teams. His brother Krunal has been retained in T20.