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Ahead of the upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand, the Indian team, led by Suryakumar Yadav, has been dealt with a massive setback as the middle-order batter Tilak Varma has been ruled out of the first three games due to groin injury.
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On Thursday, January 8, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the news on Tilak being ruled out for the first three T20Is amid the reports of his potential ouster from the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 squad.
Notably, Tilak will return home on Friday, January 9 and will have his rehabilitation under the observation of the BCCI medical team. The in-form batter would require some time before he can resume physical activities.
“Tilak will resume physical training and gradually return to skill-based activities once his symptoms have fully resolved and wound healing is satisfactory. He is ruled out of the first three T20Is against New Zealand. His availability for the remaining two matches will be assessed based on his progress during the return-to-training and skill phases,” the board said in a statement.
On the other hand, the BCCI opted not to replace Tilak with any other batter for the forthcoming T20I series against New Zealand. That said, India is all set to take on the Black Caps in the first three T20Is with a 14-member squad. Earlier, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and Riyan Parag had been reported as the frontrunners to replace Tilak Varma in the squad. However, BCCI’s new statement had quashed all the reports.
The first T20I between these two sides is scheduled to commence on Wednesday, January 21 in Nagpur.
India updated squad for first three T20Is vs New Zealand: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel (vc), Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy.
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