Parag, Abhishek, Reddy get maiden India call-up in Gill-led team

Senior players, including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav have been rested for five-match T20 series against Zimbabwe.

New Delhi: Youngsters Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy were on Monday rewarded for their exploits in the last Indian Premier League (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.

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 represents 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.

Squad: 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.