India has announced its squad for the T20 World Cup, Ishan Kishan, Rinku Singh, and Axar Patel have returned to the team.

 India's 15-man squad for the Men's T20 World Cup 2026 and the five-match T20I series against New Zealand in the lead-up to the global event next year. Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side while Axar Patel has been named as the vice-captain.

As a result, Shubman Gill, who was vice-captain of the squad until the recently concluded T20I series against South Africa, and Jitesh Sharma, have missed the cut. BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia, captain Suryakumar Yadav and chief selector Ajit Agarkar announced the 15-man squad for the mega-event from the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday (December 20).

India Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Axar Patel (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh

Axar was vice-captain of the Indian T20I squad until the conclusion of the five-match T20I series against England in January and February before Gill took over the role in India's next T20I assignment at the Asia Cup in September, this year. Gill remained the deputy for Suryakumar in the subsequent Australia and South Africa series as well but Axar will now take over.

Gill had missed the last two T20Is due to a foot injury which he suffered in the nets ahead of the abandoned T20I in Lucknow. But, it wasn't a fruitful year for Gill in T20Is scoring just 291 runs in 15 innings at an average of 24.25 and striking at 137.26 with no fifties or hundreds to show for his efforts.