Hardik Pandya to lead the team, Rahul Tripathi earns maiden call up

India will face Ireland in a two-match T20I series on the 26 and 28 of this month. Ireland will host the series in Dublin. Indian batting legend and current National Cricket Academy Chairman VVS Laksman will be the head coach for the side accompanied by Shitanshu Kotak, Sairaj Bahutule Munish Bali. Indian Cricket authority has named the Indian talisman all-rounder Hardik Pandya, the captain for the series with Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the Vice-Captain. 

Hardik Pandya was out of the Indian squad for a prolonged eight months because of poor form and injuries. He was dropped from the Indian team after his below-the-bar performance in the T20 World Cup in UAE & Oman last October-November. Later this year he made a fairytale comeback in the Indian T20 League. He led the Gujarat Franchise to win the maiden prestigious silverware in their very first season of the Indian T20 League. The decision of the selectors can turn out to be rewarding later as a few days back, Pandya not only fetched the title while facing tough contenders in the Indian T20 League but also aided his team in all departments. From excellent captaincy to scoring 487 runs in 15 games with an average of 44.27 and picking up 8 wickets at the economy rate of 7.27. 

Rahul Tripathi has finally received his maiden India call-up after a successful Indian T20 League with the Hyderabad franchise. There were a lot of backlashes after he was not considered for the India vs South Africa series but his stupendous performance for Hyderabad sealed him a spot in the series against Ireland. With a total of 413 runs in 14 games with a strike rate of 158.23 and three half-centuries, the 31 years old enthralled everyone with his stellar performance in the league.

India Squad: 

Hardik Pandya (C), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (VC), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, R Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.