The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the Indian squad for the three-match T20I series against New Zealand with maiden call ups for Shreyas Iyer and Mohammed Siraj.

Veteran pacer Ashish Nehra, who announced his retirement from all forms of the game following the New Zealand T20I, has been picked for the first match to be played in New Delhi.

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Nehra will bow out from the game after playing in front of his home crowd in the first T20I on November 1.

Chairman of Selectors, MSK Prasad, said that Iyer and Siraj had been picked based on their consistent performances in domestic and first-class cricket.

“Iyer has been prolific across formats – in first-class, one-dayers, T20. He’s been performing consistently. If we pick a player, we will give him a long run. The same applies for Siraj,” Prasad said.

22-year-old Iyer was in fine form in the recently concluded series between New Zealand A and India A where he scored 317 runs in the four matches including a highest score of 108.

23-year-old Siraj, a medium pacer, also had impressive outings against New Zealand A and in India A’s tour of South Africa earlier.

KL Rahul kept his place in the T20 squad after being dropped for the ODI series while Dinesh Karthik also retained his spot after being picked for the series against Australia.

The wrist-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal has once again found favour with the selectors with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja being overlooked once again in the limited-overs format.

Axar Patel has kept his spot as the third spinner in the lineup. Prasad also made it clear that Nehra would be not assured of a starting spot in his farewell match with that decision being left up to the team management.

“We can’t say that [if Nehra will play in the first T20]. Whether he is going to play or not, it is clearly the team management and the selector on call, whoever it is. The think tank involved will be taking a call. There is no assurance from our side that he’s going to play or not. It will be decided on that particular day,” he explained.

India squad

Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Ashish Nehra (only for first T20I)