NEW DELHI, June 24: Youngsters Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy were on Monday rewarded for their exploits in the last IPL with maiden India call-ups for the upcoming white-ball tour of Zimbabwe under the captaincy of Shubman Gill.
Senior players competing in the ongoing T20 World Cup in the Americas, including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested ahead of a gruelling season.
The Zimbabwe tour comprises five T20 Internationals, beginning July 6.
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Besides Parag, Abhishek and Reddy, other IPL performers boarding the flight to Zimbabwe are Tushar Deshpande, Harshit Rana, Avesh Khan and Rinku Singh among others.
Also featuring in the 15-member squad are Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who were on the bench during the T20 World Cup.
Gill and Avesh, who were part of travelling reserves for India’s T20 World Cup campaign, were released after the team finished their group stage matches as they were unlikely to feature in any of the remaining games.
As far as the newcomers are concerned, Abhishek and Parag dominated IPL-17 the most with their brilliant batting.
Punjab batsman Abhishek, who represent Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, had blazed away to 484 runs while Rajasthan Royals’ Parag, the first player from Assam to be picked in the senior Indian team, amassed 573 runs.
Meanwhile, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma congratulated Riyan Parag for becoming the first cricketer from the northeast to be selected in the Indian team for the forthcoming T20 series against Zimbabwe.
Sarma described it as a watershed moment for sports in Assam.
“This is the best news of the day! Our very own Assam boy becomes the first cricketer from the North East to join the ‘Men in Blue’ club,” he said on X.
“Dear Riyan, many congratulations for becoming a part of Team India’s T20 International series against Zimbabwe,” he said.
Sarma said the state government “will leave no stone unturned to ensure several more youngsters from our state can take up sports as a full-time profession”.
The Zimbabwe tour of five T20 matches begins on July 6.
Parag, 22, is an all-rounder and a member of the Rajasthan Royals team in the Indian Premier League since 2018.
He was a part of the Indian team that won the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.
Parag is the son of former Assam Ranji player Parag Das and ace swimmer Mithu Barua.
India’s squad for T20I series against Zimbabwe: Shubman Gill (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Nitish Reddy, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande.
