On Monday, July 6, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s T20I squad for the forthcoming three-match tour of Zimbabwe, scheduled to start later in July 2026. Notably, Sanju Samson has been axed from the squad.
Interestingly, the BCCI didn’t state a proper reason behind Samson’s exclusion from the T20I squad. Surprisingly, a total of seven changes have been made to the squad that is currently playing the five-match T20I series against England.
Axar Patel, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, and Ravi Bishnoi are the other players not included in the 15-man squad. On the other hand, the middle-order batter Rinku Singh and pacer Mayank Yadav made their way to the squad. Prabhsimran Singh, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, and Harsh Dubey got their maiden call-ups to the shortest format of the game.
It’s important to note that Samson’s exclusion from the squad came after he was dropped from the playing XI in the second T20I against England at Old Trafford in Manchester as teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his debut, scoring 14 runs off 10 balls.
Samson could score only six runs in three games against Ireland and England combined. Before IPL 2026, he smacked three consecutive half-centuries to lead India to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 title and was also adjudged the Player of the Tournament.
Meanwhile, for Mayank Yadav, the T20I call-up is a second chance in India’s squad after he played three T20I matches in 2024 following a good IPL season.
India T20I squad for Zimbabwe tour: Shreyas Iyer (c), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Rinku Singh, Harsh Dubey, Varun Chakaravarathy, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)
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