NEW DELHI, Dec 20: India announced their squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 and T20 series against New Zealand, with the BCCI selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, taking the bold call of removing Shubman Gill from the post of vice-captain and axing him from the 15-member squad.
Wicket-keeper batsman Jitesh Sharma was also left out, with the in-form Ishan Kishan – who last played a T20 for India more than two years ago – included instead. Suryakumar Yadav remained as captain, while Sanju Samson was selected as the primary wicket-keeper batsman. Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar were both included as well.
All-rounder Axar Patel, who missed the last two matches against South Africa due to injury, has been reinstated as the vice-captain of the team. Axar Patel was the vice-captain before Shubman Gill was included in the T20 team and named the vice-captain.
Gill was one of the notable omissions when the national senior selection committee, chaired by former India pacer Ajit Agarkar, met at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday to finalize the squad for India’s title defence. The selectors opted for Sanju Samson as the preferred opener-wicketkeeper, bringing back Ishan Kishan as his back-up after a two-year absence from the national set-up.
Explaining Gill’s omission, Agarkar emphasized the importance of team combinations. Shubman, we know what a quality player he is. Perhaps he is short of a few runs at the moment,” Agarkar said during a 20-minute media interaction that was also attended by skipper Suryakumar Yadav and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia.
“He was unfortunate to miss out on the last T20 World Cup as well because we went for a different combination. This is about combinations more than anything else.” Agarkar added that the selectors felt a wicket-keeper opening the batting provided greater balance. “We felt a ‘keeper at the top gives us a lot more solidity everywhere else in the team to play different combinations. There are only 15 spots. Someone has to miss out, and this time it is him. It is not because he is not a good player,” he said.
On Jitesh’s exclusion, Agarkar said the selectors narrowed their options to like-for-like ‘keeper-openers once Gill was ruled out. “If a ‘keeper is going to bat at the top, our thought was to have another ‘keeper as cover, just in case. At the moment, Jitesh was there and hasn’t done too much wrong,” Agarkar explained, while noting that Axar had previously served as vice-captain when Gill was not part of the T20 side.
With Jitesh missing out, Rinku Singh — who was unfortunate to miss the cut in 2024 — returned as the designated finisher. The squad also features four spinners, two of them all-rounders, alongside the pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana.
Saikia confirmed that no standby players were named, citing logistical ease with the tournament being co-hosted in India. “Flying in replacements, if required, will not be a problem,” he said. The same 15-member World Cup squad will feature in the five T20Is against New Zealand.
T20 India squad
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-captain), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarty, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wk).
(Rohit Kumar)
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