The Ajit Agarkar-led national selection panel is most likely to pick identical squads for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand and the marquee ICC T20 World Cup, a BCCI source said on Friday.
While the schedule for the global event has yet to be announced, the tentative start for the 20-team tournament is February 7. ICC tournament rules mandate teams to submit their final 15-man squad a month before the tournament begins. The selection committee will announce its selection with the possibility to make changes by the specified closing date.
The same rule applied for the 2024 edition held in America, which was won by Rohit Sharma-led India. The New Zealand T20I series starts from January 21 and will be the last series before the T20 World Cup.
“With only 10 T20Is left before the T20 World Cup, you won’t see many changes happening in the squad itself unless someone is ruled out due to some particular injury,” a source privy to the development told PTI on condition of anonymity.
“One of the biggest reasons is continuity and the 15 selected for the series against the Black Caps will not be drilled because of the short turnaround time.”
The five T20Is against New Zealand will be played in Nagpur (January 21), Raipur (January 23), Guwahati (January 25), Vizag (January 28) and Trivandrum (January 31).
It is expected that South Africa T20I series it will be the last chance for Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav to try out a couple of players ahead of the New Zealand rubber which will be the dress rehearsal for the marquee event.
While injury-forced changes are something beyond their control, the selection committee may not want to tinker with the named squad later, as they were forced to go down that route during the Champions Trophy in Dubai earlier this year.
The original Champions Trophy squad included Yashasvi Jaiswal, but looking at the conditions in Dubai and the need for a mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy made his way during the previous series against England. Jaiswal was eventually eliminated after being picked in the first 15a precedent that did not look encouraging.
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Issued by:
Rishabh Beniwal
Published on:
November 21, 2025
