Sanju Samson has returned to India’s T20I squad for three matches against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi from September 13 to 17. The 31-year-old wicketkeeper-batter was dropped from the playing XI after featuring in both T20Is against Ireland and the first T20I of a five-match series against England on the tour of the United Kingdom in June and July.

While Samson did come back to open in the fifth and final T20I against Harry Brook’s men, he did not feature in the squad altogether for the subsequent series against Zimbabwe.

Samson’s ouster came shortly after he was adjudged the Player-of-the-Tournament in India’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign in March. His scores in the final three games of the marquee event were 89, 89 and 97 n.o. He will have to vie for an opening slot with Abhishek Sharma and 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the upcoming series.

The 15-member squad, led by Shreyas Iyer, also sees a return for Jasprit Bumrah after injury, but his participation remains subject to fitness clearance. The speedster had missed India’s recent Test series win over Sri Lanka due to a knee injury.

With the Men in Blue heading to Japan to defend their Asian Games gold later this month, they may look to tread cautiously with their pace spearhead. All-rounders Nitish Kumar, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana, all of whom are coming back from injuries, will also need clearance from the medical team at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) to take part against the Afghans.

The squad: Shreyas Iyer (Capt.), Tilak Varma (Vice-capt.), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshit Rana*.

* Subject to fitness clearance