Team India return to Chepauk after seven years with completely changed T20 line-up – India TV
Team India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, started 2025 on a high in T20Is with a solid seven-wicket win over England in the first game of the five-match series. The caravan now moves to Chennai as the second T20I is set to be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, famously known as Chepauk. England are playing a T20I in Chennai for the first time while team India are also returning to the venue in the shortest format after a gap of seven long years.
India last played a T20I at Chepauk back in November 2018 against the West Indies when Rohit Sharma led the team. It was a completely different Indian team to what it is now and the hosts had won the clash by six wickets chasing down 182 runs in the last-ball thriller.
After winning the toss, West Indies batted superbly and on the back of Nicholas Pooran’s unbeaten 53 off 25 balls with four fours and as many sixes, they managed to post a daunting total of 181 runs for the loss of three wickets. In response, Shikhar Dhawan led the chase for India opening the innings and scored 92 runs off 62 deliveries.
Rishabh Pant also slammed his maiden half-century in the format scoring 58 runs off 38 deliveries before getting out. Things got close in the end with Dhawan being dismissed in the final over but the men in blue managed to get over the line on the final ball to seal the series 3-0.
Team India return to the venue seven years later and none of the players from that playing XI is featuring in the current line-up. Rohit Sharma has retired from T20Is while Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik have bid adieu to international cricket. All the other players have been sidelined from the format with only Washington Sundar being the part of the current squad.
India’s playing XI when they last played T20I in Chennai in 2018: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar, Khaleel Ahmed
India’s current T20I squad: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Shami, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana
