India vs England T20 series squads: Who's in and who's out - full team list of the two teams

Virat Kohli, after making the perfect start to his permanent captaincy in all forms of the game, will now look to make it a clean sweep of series wins when his India team play England in three T20s, starting Republic Day, Thursday.

India vs England T20 series schedule

To do that, the India skipper will want his batsmen to step up, much like they did in the ODIs, and the bowlers to do a little better in order to release some of the extra burden on the men who smash sixes and fours.

India have a fairly young squad for this T20 series, although the average age of a team always increases if you have a certain Ashish Nehra in the lineup.

Nehra did not have the greatest of times on his injury comeback in the warm-up game against England, played before the ODI series, but the left-armer is an important bowler for India in the shortest format.

The 37-year-old can pick up wickets up front and bowl intelligently at the death, making him one of the go-to bowlers for India in T20Is. It will be interesting to see how Kohli uses the veteran in this series, especially if Jasprit Bumrah continues his iffy form with the ball.

No Ashwin and Jadeja

R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, after initially being picked, were rested by the selectors on Monday, what with India still having five more Test matches to play during this long home leg. Parvez Rasool and Amit Mishra are the replacements for the two premier spinners and with Yuzvendra Chahal also in the squad, Kohli certainly has a lot of spin options to play with.

Kohli has worked with Chahal and Rasool at RCB, while Mishra is an India regular, so the captain will be familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of all three spinners.

Opening poser

Openers remain the big question mark in the India batting lineup. Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane are not in the squad, but KL Rahul is and having failed in all three matches, the Karnataka man will certainly want to make an impression.

The other options are Mandeep Singh, who is yet to convince he is of international ilk, and Rishabh Pant, the most exciting of the three options and someone who could, if given an opportunity, light up this T20 series with his aggressive batting.

Raina return

Making a comeback to the side is Suresh Raina and this will be a key series for the left-hander to show he still has a role to play in India's limited-overs future, including the ICC Champions Trophy.

England have, more or less, the same squad for the T20s.

Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills are the new players coming in. Jordan is a familiar face, having played in the World T20 and the IPL, while Mills is an express pacer, who England will hope can trouble the India batting lineup, which is power-packed with Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, to just name three.

Squads:

India: Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Rishabh Pant, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Parvez Rasool, Amit Mishra, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra.

England: Eoin Morgan (C), Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Jake Ball, David Willey, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills.