Sooryavanshi In, Samson Out As India Announces Squad For Zimbabwe Tour

Hyderabad: The senior selection committee has taken a big call while announcing the Indian squad for the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe starting from July 23. The Ajit Agarkar-led committee has left out Sanju Samson from the squad, but they haven’t clarified whether the wicketkeeper-batter was rested or dropped. The decision has come a few days after Samson was dropped to accommodate Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the playing XI. The latter has been retained for the series against Zimbabwe.

Samson’s omission has been the talk of the town as he was Player of the Tournament during India’s T20 World Cup title run. But he suffered a rough patch during the tour of England and Ireland, managing only six runs from three T20Is so far.

Bowling Unit rested

The majority of the bowling unit from the T20Is against England have been dropped. Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna have been left out of the pace unit to make way for the new faces, while Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar will not handle the duties in the spin department.

Ashok Sharma has earned a maiden call-up after taking six wickets in the IPL 2026 from six matches in his maiden season for the Rajasthan Royals. The 24-year-old pacer is known for consistently bowling around 150 kph.

Along with Ashok, Prince Yadav, express pacer Mayank Yadav and Yash Thakur will form the pace battery for the team.

Rinku Singh returns while Prabhsimran Singh earns maiden call-up

Kolkata Knight Riders star Rinku Singh has returned to the Indian squad for the first time since the T20 World Cup held earlier this year. He was dropped from the series against England along with Suryakumar Yadav. The reason behind Rinku’s omission from the squad was his struggle with the bat. He managed to amass only 115 runs in eight innings at an average of 28.75 in the shortest format in 2026.

Prabhsimran has earned his maiden call-up after an impressive season in the IPL with the Punjab Kings. The PBKS batter racked up 510 runs at a staggering strike rate of 168.87, and he also became the first uncapped player in the tournament's history to pile 500+ runs in multiple seasons.

The majority of the batting lineup from the England series remains the same.

India squad for the Zimbabwe series

Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Rinku Singh, Harsh Dubey, Varun Chakaravarthy, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav, Prabhsimran Singh.

Shivam Dube replaced for England series

BCCI also announced that Shivam Dube will replace Nitish Kuamr Reddy for the remainder of the series.

India vs Zimbabwe T20 series schedule

First T20I: July 23, Harare

Second T20I: July 25, Harare

Third T20I: July 26, Harare