From Mayank Yadav to Shreyas Iyer, Players who missed out on T20I squad for the series vs Zimbabwe

Just over a week ago, before the 2024 T20 World Cup semifinals, BCCI revealed a glimpse of the future of T20I cricket by selecting a fresh Indian team for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour, excluding Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The team led by Shubman Gill will participate in five T20Is from July 6 onwards, but none of the players from the T20 World Cup winning team will be included as they have all been given a rest. Some players will only join the squad for the later part of the series.

The selection committee recently announced Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma, and Harshit Rana as replacements for Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the initial two T20 matches against Zimbabwe. The trio, who were part of India's T20 World Cup winning squad, will join the Shubman-gill-led side for the final three T20Is against Zimbabwe.

However, some notable players were not included for the series against Zimbabwe and Ishan Kishan is one such name among them.

Ishan Kishan was in BCCI's scheme of things a few months ago. He was India's first choice of wicket-keeper until the return of Rishabh Pant and it was expected that he would be India's second wicketkeeper for the T20I World Cup but Sanju Samson got the opportunity instead. BCCI has named Dhruv Jurel and Jitesh Sharma for the series against Zimbabwe. Jitesh Sharma will be replaced by Sanju Samson in the last three T20 internationals which means Ishan Kishan is not in BCCI's scheme of things anymore.

In addition to Ishan, Shreyas Iyer and Varun Chakaravarthy, who played together for Kolkata Knight Riders, were both overlooked despite their impressive performances. Iyer led the team to their third IPL title win in May, while Chakaravarthy was the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, taking 21 wickets at an economy rate of 8.04 in 15 matches.

Mayank Yadav and Umran Malik were also not selected for the series against Zimbabwe. Mayank Yadav impressed everyone with his raw pace during IPL 2024 before getting injured whereas Umran Malik has not represented India since January last year.

With Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja announcing their retirements from the T20I format, BCCI has a task in their hand to build a team from scratch along with players like Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav in the side as the men in blue will look forward to defending their title in 2026.