Sachin congratulates Suryakumar, Ishan, Tewatia on maiden call-up for T20Is: Playing for India is the highest honour

Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday congratulated Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Rahul Tewatia on earning their maiden call-ups for India for the upcoming T20I series against England.

Tendulkar also congratulated Varun Chakravarthy, who was picked in the T20I squad for India's tour of Australia but a shoulder injury had forced him to miss the series.

"Heartiest congratulations @ishankishan51, @rahultewatia02 & @surya_14kumar for your maiden call up to the Indian Team, and also to @chakaravarthy29, who missed out in Australia. Playing for India is the highest honour for any cricketer. Wishing you all a lot of success," Tendulkar tweeted.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee met on Saturday to pick the squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against England, to be played at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera in Ahmedabad.

The trio -- Suryakumar, Ishan, and Tewatia -- have benefitted from their performances in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kishan had topped the chart for Mumbai Indians by accumulating 516 runs in 14 games including four fifties while Yadav had scored 480 runs in 16 games for the champion side.

Whereas, all-rounder Tewatia had amassed 255 runs and scalped 10 wickets in 14 games for Rajasthan Royals. Also, Kishan's 173-run knock on Saturday helped Jharkhand to post the highest team score in the history of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The side had achieved the feat in the match against Madhya Pradesh in Indore. Kishan-led Jharkhand had posted a total of 422/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is also returning to the side while Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested for the five-match T20I series.

India's T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, W Sundar, R Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep, Shardul Thakur.

The first T20I will be played on March 12 after the ongoing Test series concludes. Both the teams are gearing up for the third Test which commences on February 24.

(ANI)

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