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India v/s New Zealand, T20s: Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer rewarded for consistency

'Shreyas has been performing consistently in T20s, one-dayers and first-class. We will continue with him and nurture him. Same with Siraj,' says chairman of selectors MSK Prasad.

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Mohammed Siraj
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The national selectors rewarded Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer and Hyderabad fast bowler Mohammed Siraj for their consistent performances for India ‘A’ by naming them in the India squad for the three-match T20 series against New Zealand next month.

Iyer comes in to replace Maharashtra’s Kedar Jadhav from the squad that squared the series against Australia 1-1 while Siraj has won his maiden national call-up. The selectors also named veteran left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra in the 16-member squad only for the first T20 in New Delhi on November 1 after which it will be a 15-man party.

Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said that naming Nehra for his farewell match does not guarantee him a place in the playing 11 in front of his home crowd.

 

Prasad explained: “We have communicated to Nehra and the team management that we were only looking at him till the New Zealand series. After that, if you see the pattern with which we have selected India ‘A’ bowlers, it has been the same bowlers that we have tried in the last one-and-a-half years. This message very clearly communicated. The player took it in the right spirit. Instead of waiting for New Zealand series to get over, Nehra will quit after the Delhi game.”

Prasad stressed whether Nehra, 38, figures in the playing XI “is entirely up to the team-management and the selector on call”.

Nehra, though named in the T20 squad against Australia recently, did not figure in the playing 11. Whether the team think-tank will go with emotion and hand over Nehra a farewell game will remain to be seen.

Prasad also said that the selectors follow “clear cut template about who should be there (in the squad), when someone has to be given an exit, when a youngster has to come in” and insisted that there was “none requesting for a farewell game”.

 

On the 22-year-old Mumbai right-hander Shreyas, who has been a part of Delhi Daredevils in IPL and who averages 26.85 in T20s and a healthy strike rate of 128.00 in 53 games and scored nine fifties, Prasad said: “Shreyas has been performing consistently in T20s, one-dayers and first-class. We will continue with him and nurture him. Same with Siraj.”

Siraj, who bowled in the Indian team nets during the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad earlier this year, made his IPL debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad, impressing everyone and got on to the India ‘A’ squad for South Africa. Siraj, 23-year-old right-arm medium-pacer, has 26 wickets in 16 T20s at an average of 18.73 and an economy rate of 7.85.

The squad for 3 T20Is vs New Zealand

Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra (only for first T20I) and Mohammed Siraj.

 

The schedule

Nov 1: 1st T20, New Delhi
Nov 4: 2nd T20, Rajkot
Nov 7: 3rd T20, Thiruvananthapuram.

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