{"id":671947,"date":"2026-01-03T21:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671947\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:21:18","slug":"shreyas-iyer-in-ruturaj-gaikwad-dropped-as-india-reveals-squad-for-nz-odis-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671947\/","title":{"rendered":"Shreyas Iyer IN, Ruturaj Gaikwad Dropped As India Reveals Squad For NZ ODIs | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Updated:January 03, 2026, 16:51 IST<\/p>\n

Captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer return to India’s ODI squad for the New Zealand series, with Iyer’s inclusion pending fitness clearance from CoE, says BCCI.\"Shreyas<\/p>\n

Shreyas Iyer is back in the ODI team. (PTI Photo)<\/p>\n

Captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer returned to India\u2019s ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series against New Zealand. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), though, said Iyer\u2019s participation in the series was subject to fitness clearance from the Centre of Excellence (CoE).<\/p>\n

Fast-bowler Mohammed Siraj also returned to the ODI set-up after missing out against South Africa at home. The three players\u2019 return meant exits for Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Dhruv Jurel.<\/p>\n

Varma played one game against South Africa but didn\u2019t get to bat, while Jurel was benched in all three matches. Gaikwad, on the other hand, impressed with a century at number four, but will have to make way for Iyer, who is one of India\u2019s best batters in the format.<\/p>\n

India would be pleased with the Mumbaikar\u2019s return. He picked up a serious spleen injury during last year\u2019s tour of Australia and spent the last few months in rehab.<\/p>\n

Although reports suggest he has lost weight and lacks match fitness, he\u2019s set to appear in a few Vijay Hazare Trophy matches before the ODI series begins. That should give him enough time to get CoE\u2019s clearance.<\/p>\n

The series will start on January 11 with the first ODI in Vadodara. The next two matches will be played in Rajkot and Indore on January 14 and 18, respectively.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s squad for New Zealand ODIs: <\/strong>Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal<\/p>\n

Why no Hardik Pandya?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah has continued to be rested from ODI rubbers. This time, the board has also given the luxury to Hardik Pandya, who\u2019s still not fully fit to bowl. Pandya made a return to competitive cricket in the T20Is against South Africa after spending months on the sidelines due to a quad injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cHardik Pandya has not been cleared by the BCCI COE to bowl 10 overs in a match, and considering the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup to follow, his workload is being managed,” the BCCI said.<\/p>\n

First Published:<\/p>\n

January 03, 2026, 16:37 IST<\/p>\n

News<\/a> cricket<\/a> Shreyas Iyer IN, Ruturaj Gaikwad Dropped As India Reveals Squad For NZ ODIsDisclaimer: Comments reflect users\u2019 views, not News18\u2019s. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Updated:January 03, 2026, 16:51 IST Captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer return to India’s ODI squad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[18666,1406,204501,204503,32441,183689,204502,43850,34926,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-671947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-bcci","9":"tag-cricket","10":"tag-india-odi-squad","11":"tag-india-vs-new-zealand","12":"tag-indian-cricket-team","13":"tag-new-zealand-odi-series","14":"tag-odi-squad-selection","15":"tag-shreyas-iyer","16":"tag-shubman-gill","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115833266818789894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}