A senior DDCA official revealed that opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan has to report to Ahmedabad alongside the other selected players by the 1st of March.
They demand that all the limited-overs players play a couple of matches to stay in touch before entering another bio-secure bubble with all the COVID-19 protocols in place.
Shikhar Dhawan needs to Report on March 1
“Shikhar is supposed to report in Ahmedabad along with others on March 1. As far as we know, all the white ball specialists have been asked to play 2 to 3 games to be in touch as they will again enter a new bubble with all the COVID-19 protocols in place,” a senior DDCA official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
All the players arriving in Ahmedabad will be tested for COVID-19 and will be placed in a new bio-bubble ahead of the T20I series. There are quite a few new faces in the Indian side for the T20Is with as many as three debutants in the form of Suryakumar, Kishan, and Tewatia.
Rishabh Pant also returned to the side after shining in the red-ball cricket for India, while the selectors also decided to include Varun Chakravarthy. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would be the captains and vice-captains.
Bhuvneshwar will also be making his comeback from injury after a long spell on the sidelines. Pant and Kishan have been selected as the two designated wicket-keeper batsmen in the side with Sanju Samson making way for the latter.
Manish Pandey, Samson, and Mayank Agarwal were some notable exclusions from the T20I squad while Jasprit Bumrah has been rested for the five-match rubber, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja will continue to remain unavailable as they continue to recover from their respective injuries.
The T20 series will be played in Ahmedabad between March 12 and 20 and will be followed by a three-match ODI series that will be played in Pune between March 23 and 28.
