Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur.
KL Rahul continues to push Dhawan for the opener's slot, having shown brilliant form in domestic limited-overs cricket as well as against West Indies and Sri Lanka recently. With Rohit back in the squad, it seems likely that either Rahul or Dhawan will have to sit out from the starting eleven.
Also, Shami's selection has further boosted the pace bowling department already featuring Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, and Shardul Thakur, with all-rounder Shivam Dube on the side with his medium-pace. Dube continues to provide India with the seam-bowling all-rounder option as Hardik Pandya is yet to recover from a back injury for which he had surgery last year.
The rest of the squad picks itself with the presence of middle-order batting options in Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, and Rishabh Pant, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, and three spinners in Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Washington Sundar.
The New Zealand tour starts with the first of the five T20s on January 24 in Auckland, before which India hosts Australia in three ODIs starting January 14.
Rohit, Shami return to India T20 squad for NZ tour
India have brought back senior players Rohit Sharma and Mohammad Shami in the T20 squad for five matches on the upcoming tour of New Zealand. Rohit rested for the recently concluded three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka at home, with Shikhar Dhawan returning to take his place. Shami missed out on the series after playing one game against West Indies last month.