Suresh Raina, Team India’s veteran left-hand batsman, is back in the national side after almost a year. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a 16-member squad for the forthcoming T20I series against South Africa starting from February 18 and Raina has found a place in the same.
Raina last played a T20I for India on February 1, 2017, against England after which he was ousted from the team. Despite spending a lot of time for physical training and fitness sessions at the National Cricket Academy, he failed to make into the Indian squad for rest of the games played in 2017.
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Apart from Suresh Raina, speedster Jaydev Unadkat has also been selected in the squad. Recently in the IPL auctions, Unadkat cracked a big deal as he was sold for Rs 11.5 Cr to Rajasthan Royals because of his excellent show in T20s recently. Shikhar Dhawan is also back in the T20I squad while Rahane has been overlooked again.
Here is the squad:
Virat Kohli (Captain) Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur
Earlier in December 2017, Raina announced on the social media that he has passed the Yo-Yo Test after which he led the Uttar Pradesh T20 team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and even smashed a 49-ball century. Ahead of getting inducted into the national side, he was also retained by the Chennai Super Kings and was designated as the deputy of skipper MS Dhoni for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.
The Indian cricket team is scheduled to play three T20Is against the Proteas – Feb 18 in Johannesburg, Feb 21 in Centurion and Feb 24 in Cape Town.
