Shreyas Iyer, Gill back in India's ODI squad for NZ series

Shubman Gill will return as ODI captain and Shreyas Iyer, subject to fitness clearance, will be the vice-captain for India's three-match ODI series against New Zealand at home starting January 11. Mohammed Siraj also returns to the 15-man squad, while Hardik Pandya is being rested.

Gill had missed the South Africa ODI series because of a neck spasm suffered during the Kolkata Test while Iyer is making his return from a spleen injury he picked up during the tour of Australia. While Gill returned to action during the T20Is against South Africa, Iyer has not played any competitive cricket since October 2025.

Siraj last represented India in ODIs during the tour of Australia. He has been a regular member of the Test squad while also turning out for Hyderabad in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Gill, Iyer and Siraj come into the squad in place of Tilak Varma, Dhruv Jurel and Ruturaj Gaikwad. These are the only changes to the squad that beat South Africa 2-1. Tilak and Jurel did not get a game during that series although Gaikwad scored 105 in Raipur from No. 4.

Apart from Gill and Iyer, other specialist batters in the squad are Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal. KL Rahul - stand-in captain during the South Africa ODIs - and Rishabh Pant are the two wicketkeeper-batters. Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy are the allrounders while Kuldeep Yadav is the wristspinner. Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh and Siraj form the seam attack.

As for Hardik, the BCCI is managing his workload with one eye on the T20 World Cup starting February 7. The BCCI's statement said that Hardik has not yet been cleared by the Centre of Excellence to bowl 10 overs in a game.

As part of Iyer's return-to-play protocol, the batter featured in a practice game on January 2 in Bengaluru's Centre for Excellence. Iyer batted pain-free, and came through all his drills, both pre- and post-game, without showing any signs of discomfort that day. He is expected to play for Mumbai against Himachal Pradesh in Jaipur on January 6 as well.

The ODI series against New Zealand starts on January 11 in Vadodara before the teams move to Rajkot for the second ODI on January 14. The series ends with the third ODI on January 18 in Indore. India's squad for the T20I series that will follow (and the T20 World Cup starting February 7) was announced in December 2025.