Umran Malik wins national call-up for T20I against South Africa

NEW DELHI — Jammu and Kashmir pace sensation Umran Malik earned an expected call-up in the Indian team for the upcoming five-match T20 International home series against South Africa starting June 9.

Umran has so far picked up 21 wickets in 13 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL but his ability to bowl consistently at 95 miles per hour has caught the imagination of all and sundry. Along with Umran, Punjab Kings’ death overs specialist Arshdeep Singh has also earned his maiden national call-up.

Regular captain Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli, and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have all been rested for the white-ball series in which Rishabh Pant will be the vice-captain.

Rohit, Kohli, and Bumrah will all fly to England on June 15 for the one-off Test against England at Edgbaston from July 1-5 and will be joined by Cheteshwar Pujara, who has earned a recall to the 17-member Indian Test team after a stupendous show in English County Championship for Sussex.

Ditto for all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has successfully led new franchise Gujarat Titans into IPL play-offs and has been consistent with the bat, besides bowling a few overs at a brisk pace.

India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

India’s T20I squad: KL Rahul (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain)(wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.