By CRIC INFO 365 Staff | September 20, 2026
India T20I squad has changed shape three times in the last two weeks. Shreyas Iyer captains the side with Tilak Varma as his deputy. Jasprit Bumrah is back after a knee injury. Varun Chakravarthy is out again, this time with a fresh side strain that has cost him his Asian Games spot. Hardik Pandya is still not fit enough to bowl a full spell and has missed the West Indies series entirely.
Here is everything that has happened, in one place, with the actual squads for what comes next.
Who Is Captaining India’s T20I Team Right Now?
Shreyas Iyer is India’s T20I captain. Tilak Varma is his vice-captain. That leadership pair has now been confirmed across three separate squad announcements in September, the Afghanistan series, the Asian Games and Japan trip, and the West Indies series, so this is not a temporary arrangement while someone else recovers. It is the settled setup going into the next cycle.
Iyer’s captaincy has come with a specific style of talking about the team, worth noting because it explains some of the selection calls below. Before the Afghanistan series, he told reporters that a player coming back from injury needs actual match time to rebuild confidence, not just a fitness certificate. That is exactly how India has handled Bumrah’s return, easing him back into T20Is rather than throwing him straight into a bigger assignment.
What’s the Latest on Jasprit Bumrah’s Injury?
Bumrah picked up an impact injury and reactive swelling in his left knee while fielding during the second ODI of India’s tour of England, in Cardiff, in July. It kept him out of the third ODI against England and both Tests against Sri Lanka in August. That is a two month gap for a fast bowler who turns 33 this year, which is exactly why India did not rush him back into red ball cricket and instead built his return around white ball cricket, where workloads are easier to manage.
He returned for the first T20I against Afghanistan on September 13 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. India bowled first, and Bumrah struck in his first over, removing Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a two ball duck. India went on to win by seven wickets behind an Abhishek Sharma innings of 82 off 32 balls. If you want the full breakdown of who else made that opening lineup, our predicted XI piece ahead of the first T20I covers the picks that were confirmed correct. Bumrah has since been named in the updated squad for the Japan T20I on September 22 and the Asian Games from September 24, so the knee has held up through the tightest part of his comeback schedule.
The detail that matters here is pace, not the wicket. Iyer’s comments before the series made clear that India was treating Bumrah’s return as a rebuilding exercise, not an automatic recall. A bowler of his experience does not need to prove he can take wickets. He needs overs in his legs after a long layoff, and that is what this stretch of T20Is against Afghanistan, Japan and then the Asian Games field is actually for.
Why Was Varun Chakravarthy Ruled Out of the Asian Games?
This is the injury story with the most sting in the tail. Chakravarthy had already fought his way back from a Grade 2 hamstring injury picked up on India’s England tour in July. He rehabbed at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, played his way back to fitness through the Tamil Nadu Premier League, and was picked for the Afghanistan series as his return vehicle.
In the first T20I on September 13, he bowled his full four overs and finished with figures of 1 for 16. On paper, a clean comeback. But he felt discomfort in his third over, and scans back in Bengaluru showed a fresh, unrelated side strain, not a recurrence of the hamstring problem. A BCCI source described him as out for an indefinite period. That ruled him out of the rest of the Afghanistan series, the Japan T20I, and the Asian Games. For the full schedule, squads and head to head numbers from that series, our Afghanistan vs India T20I series guide has the complete picture.
What makes this sting is Chakravarthy’s recent history. He has held the world number one spot in the ICC’s T20I bowler rankings before, one of only a small number of Indian bowlers to have done so, built on the strength of his mystery variations and control in the middle overs. He was working his way back toward that kind of form when this new injury arrived in the very over where India would have wanted to see him settle back in.
Vipraj Nigam has been named as his replacement for the Asian Games. Nigam is 22, plays his IPL cricket for Delhi Capitals, and has picked up 13 wickets in 19 IPL matches as a leg spin all-rounder who can also strike at a healthy rate with the bat, a career strike rate of around 176. A BCCI source said Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav were the two internal options considered, but Kuldeep was needed for the West Indies white ball assignment instead, which is why Nigam got the Asian Games nod. ESPNcricinfo has tracked Chakravarthy’s rise through the bowling rankings in detail, which makes the timing of this fresh setback even harder to swallow for India’s team management.
What Happened to Hardik Pandya?
Pandya picked up a quadriceps injury after IPL 2026 finished and has been rehabbing at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru since. He had a leg niggle before the Afghanistan series that put his involvement in doubt, and he was ultimately left out of that series altogether. He has also been omitted from India’s squad for the West Indies tour that starts September 27.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir addressed this directly after India’s series win over Afghanistan. His comment was blunt: Pandya cannot currently bowl ten overs in a day, and the team is not willing to rush him back into international cricket before he can. Gambhir also floated a longer term plan, that once Pandya is genuinely fit, there is a real possibility of him playing alongside Nitish Kumar Reddy in the same XI, effectively giving India two all-rounder options rather than picking between them.
The expected return window is late September or October, which lines up loosely with the back end of the West Indies series, though nothing has been confirmed. Batting and general movement have not been a problem during his rehab. It is specifically the bowling workload that medical staff want fully cleared before he plays again.
Who Else Has Come In or Gone Out of the Squad?
A few smaller but genuinely important changes have happened around the edges of the squad in the same window.
Harshit Rana was ruled out of the Asian Games with a rectus femoris strain and replaced by Yash Thakur, a change that happened before the Chakravarthy situation and has held since.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was pulled out of the Asian Games squad, not through injury but through a selection call, freeing him up to be available across both the ODI and T20I squads for the full West Indies series instead of splitting his time between two tours in two countries.
Mayank Yadav returns to the T20I fold after missing the Afghanistan series. His comeback story is worth knowing on its own. He spent close to two years out of international cricket dealing with a lumbar stress fracture, an abdominal issue and, at one particularly unlucky point, a toe infection picked up from kicking his own bed during rehab. He finally made his comeback in the Zimbabwe T20I series in July 2026, took 2 for 18 in Harare, and was named Player of the Match. His return to the West Indies squad is the clearest sign yet that India considers him fit for a genuine run in the side again, not just a one off appearance.
Prince Yadav, a fast bowler who played alongside Mayank in that Zimbabwe series, has earned his maiden call up for the West Indies T20Is.
Kuldeep Yadav returns to the T20I fold for the bilateral assignment, effectively covering the spin slot that would otherwise have gone to Chakravarthy, while Nigam covers the same gap for the Asian Games squad running in parallel.
India’s T20I Squad for the West Indies Series
The three match ODI series opens in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27, before the squads head into a five match T20I series that begins October 6 in Lucknow. The full squad list, along with the ODI side, was confirmed in an official BCCI release on September 16. Here is the full T20I squad, with what has changed for each player noted alongside.
| Player | Role | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Shreyas Iyer (c) | Batter | Captain, leads across all September and October assignments |
| Tilak Varma (vc) | Batter | Vice-captain |
| Abhishek Sharma | Batter | In form after 82 off 32 vs Afghanistan |
| Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | Batter | Retains place after IPL 2026 breakout season |
| Ishan Kishan | Wicketkeeper | |
| Sanju Samson | Wicketkeeper | |
| Shivam Dube | All rounder | |
| Kuldeep Yadav | Bowler | Back in the T20I squad, covering the spin slot |
| Axar Patel | All rounder | |
| Washington Sundar | All rounder | Cleared fitness after being a doubt pre Afghanistan series |
| Ravi Bishnoi | Bowler | |
| Nitish Kumar Reddy | All rounder | Available for full West Indies tour after Asian Games withdrawal |
| Arshdeep Singh | Bowler | |
| Mayank Yadav | Bowler | Returns after missing Afghanistan series, fresh off Zimbabwe comeback |
| Prince Yadav | Bowler | Maiden call up |
Notably absent from this list: Jasprit Bumrah, who is being kept fresh for the Asian Games rather than played across both assignments, and Hardik Pandya, still working through his quadriceps rehab.
India’s Updated Asian Games Squad
India plays a one off T20I against Japan on September 22 in Sano before the Asian Games itself runs September 24 to October 3 in Aichi Nagoya. The International Cricket Council has been tracking every men’s Asian Games squad as it gets confirmed, India’s included. The squad below reflects the changes made through mid September, so it looks different in a few places from what was first announced back in June.
| Player | Role | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Shreyas Iyer (c) | Batter | Captain |
| Tilak Varma (vc) | Batter | Vice-captain |
| Abhishek Sharma | Batter | |
| Sanju Samson | Wicketkeeper | |
| Ishan Kishan | Wicketkeeper | |
| Shivam Dube | All rounder | |
| Axar Patel | All rounder | |
| Washington Sundar | All rounder | |
| Ravi Bishnoi | Bowler | |
| Jasprit Bumrah | Bowler | Back from knee injury, eased in through this shorter format schedule |
| Arshdeep Singh | Bowler | |
| Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | Batter | |
| Yash Thakur | Bowler | In for the injured Harshit Rana |
| Vipraj Nigam | All rounder | In for the injured Varun Chakravarthy |
Two names from the original squad, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy, are out through injury. Nitish Kumar Reddy is out through a selection call rather than injury, prioritized instead for the West Indies white ball tour. For the full tournament picture beyond just India, groups, fixtures and every squad involved, see our Asian Games 2026 cricket schedule and squads guide.
What Does All This Squad Turnover Actually Mean?
Step back from the individual stories and a pattern shows up. Nearly every change in India’s T20I squad this September traces back to the same source: injuries carried over from an unusually heavy IPL 2026 season, surfacing months later once players tried to return to full match intensity. Bumrah’s knee, Pandya’s quadriceps, Chakravarthy’s hamstring and now a separate side strain, Harshit Rana’s rectus femoris strain, all of it lines up with players who had long, high intensity IPL campaigns earlier in the year and are only now discovering the actual cost of that workload.
The upside is that this stretch has forced India to test its bench earlier than it might have chosen to. Vipraj Nigam gets an Asian Games opportunity he would not have had otherwise. Mayank Yadav gets to prove his latest comeback holds up across a genuine bilateral series rather than a single tour. Prince Yadav gets his first taste of the setup entirely. If even two of these three stick, India walks away from a difficult injury month with more depth than it started with, which matters more than it sounds given how packed the calendar is between now and the LA 2028 Olympics push.
The one thing to watch closely from here is whether Chakravarthy’s side strain turns into a short absence or something longer. India’s spin bowling depth without him leans heavily on Bishnoi, Axar and Washington Sundar doing the bulk of the work, with Kuldeep and Nigam as the next options rather than proven first choices in ICC events. A quick recovery keeps that depth question theoretical. A longer one turns it into India’s biggest selection problem heading into 2027.
FAQs
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Who is India’s current T20I captain?
Shreyas Iyer, with Tilak Varma as vice-captain. This pairing has held across the Afghanistan series, the Asian Games squad and the West Indies squad.
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Is Jasprit Bumrah fit and playing T20Is again?
Yes. He returned for the first T20I against Afghanistan on September 13 after recovering from a left knee injury sustained in July, and has been named in the squad for the Japan T20I and the Asian Games.
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Why was Varun Chakravarthy ruled out of the Asian Games?
He suffered a fresh side strain during the first T20I against Afghanistan on September 13, separate from the hamstring injury he had just recovered from. He has been ruled out for an indefinite period and replaced by Vipraj Nigam for the Asian Games.
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When will Hardik Pandya return to the India T20I side?
There is no confirmed date. He is rehabbing a quadriceps injury at the BCCI Centre of Excellence and was left out of both the Afghanistan and West Indies series. Head coach Gautam Gambhir has indicated a possible return around late September or October, but full clearance depends on him being able to bowl a full workload again.
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Is India’s squad for the West Indies series the same as the Asian Games squad?
No. The two squads run at the same time and share some names, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson appear in both, but several players are exclusive to one or the other. Jasprit Bumrah and Vipraj Nigam are Asian Games only picks, while Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav are in the West Indies squad only.
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Who replaced Varun Chakravarthy in the Asian Games squad?
Vipraj Nigam, a 22 year old leg spin all-rounder who plays for Delhi Capitals in the IPL.
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What is Mayank Yadav’s injury history?
Mayank has dealt with a lumbar stress fracture, abdominal soreness and other setbacks that kept him out of international cricket for close to two years. He made his comeback in the Zimbabwe T20I series in July 2026 and has now been recalled for the West Indies T20Is.
Final Word
The version of this squad list that mattered in June looks nothing like the one that matters now, and that is really the story here. India has had to manage a captain change, a major fast bowler’s recovery, a spinner’s second unrelated injury inside a month, and an all-rounder still waiting for bowling clearance, all while keeping two squads running in parallel across two continents. What comes out of this stretch, in terms of who proves they belong once Bumrah, Pandya and Chakravarthy are all fully fit again, will matter more than any single result between now and October.
For live squad updates and match coverage as the West Indies series and Asian Games unfold, keep this page bookmarked.
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