Karthik and Malik selected for T20Is vs South Africa

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir pace sensation Umran Malik on Sunday earned an expected India call-up for the upcoming fivematch T20 International home series against South Africa starting June 9.

Umran’s ability to bowl consistently at 95 miles per hour has caught the imagination of all and sundry with calls for his immediate selection in top-flight cricket.

The selectors more or less picked up players who have played in last two T20I series for India with Dinesh Karthik, at 36 years of age and 18 years after he first played for India, making his umpteenth comeback.

Karthik’s inclusion will certainly put Rishabh Pant under a bit of pressure as both are designated middle-order finishers unlike third keeping option Ishan Kishan, who is a specialist opener. As per indication in the team sheet, Karthik is second keeper and Ishan is a pure batter.

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

Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja 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 Test team after a stu- pendous show in English County Championship for Sussex.

Pujara scored 720 runs in five Division two games for Sussex which forced the selection committee to give him a call-up for the ‘fifth’ Test of the last series.

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