India have added Ayush Badoni to their ODI squad against New Zealand. Here's why.
Ayush Badoni replaces Washington Sundar in India squad
During the first ODI in Vadodara on Sunday, all-rounder Washington Sundar pulled up while bowling. He saw out the rest of the match as India won, but early on Monday (January 12), the BCCI announced that he had been ruled out of the second and third ODIs with "acute onset discomfort in his left lower rib area". He will undergo further scans to assess the extent of the injury. India named Ayush Badoni, the 26-year-old Delhi and Lucknow Super Giants all-rounder as his replacement.
This is Badoni's maiden call-up to the Indian senior team. He has played two first-class matches and four List A games for India A, all in 2025. Primarily a batter, he does bowl some effective off-spin like Sundar. This perhaps explains why India chose to call him up, as a rough like-for-like replacement. They may now retain the same team structure if Badoni is required to be in the playing XI.
They likely stayed away from someone like Axar Patel since India may not want to unnecessarily play a member of their T20 World Cup squad with the tournament looming.
While Badoni has excelled in both the T20 and first-class formats at domestic and IPL level, his List A record remains rather more average. He is a player well-known to India head coach Gautam Gambhir though, hailing from the same state and playing under Gambhir at LSG.
This is the second forced change India have made to their squad for this series. Yesterday, Rishabh Pant suffered a side strain in practice, and was replaced by Dhruv Jurel.
Ayush Badoni: Career record
Batting
| Format | Matches | Runs | Avg | SR |
| First-class | 21 | 1681 | 57.96 | 82.88 |
| List A | 27 | 693 | 36.47 | 93.27 |
| T20 | 96 | 1788 | 29.80 | 137.96 |
Bowling
| Format | Matches | Wickets | Avg | ER |
| First-class | 21 | 22 | 23.50 | 3.27 |
| List A | 27 | 18 | 29.72 | 4.54 |
| T20 | 96 | 17 | 25.88 | 8.62 |
Updated: India ODI squad vs New Zealand
Batters: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer* (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Wicketkeepers: KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (withdrawn), Dhruv Jurel (added).
All-rounders: Washington Sundar (withdrawn), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ayush Badoni (added).
Bowlers: Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.
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