India announce squad for T20Is vs South Africa

India have announced their squad for the upcoming T20 international series against South Africa. The three matches will take place between Sunday 18 February and Saturday 24 February with games at Wanderers, SuperSport Park and Newlands.

The big news is the return to the T20I fold for Suresh Raina who has not played a match in the format since February 2017.

Fresh from his big pay day at the IPL auction, Jaydev Unadkat is also in the squad for these three matches. Unadkat has played four T20I matches for India, the most recent of which was in December against Sri Lanka. Unadkat has some experience of playing in South Africa, his only Test appearance came at Centurion in 2010.

There is the chance of a T20I debut for Shardul Thakur who has played two ODIs but is yet to make his bow in this format. The Mumbai pacer has been impressing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Virat Kohli is captain and Rohit Sharma will be vice-captain for the 16-man squad.

India T20I squad

Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (Vice Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur