Shubman Gill, having recovered from a neck injury that forced him to miss a part of the Test series and the entire ODI series against the Proteas, has been named in the squad to take on South Africa in the five-match T20I series starting on December 9.

His participation is subject to fitness clearance from BCCI Centre Of Excellence. Hardik Pandya is also back in the fold after a two-month injury lay-off.

The series will serve as key preparation for both teams ahead of the T20 World Cup, set to begin on February 7.

The squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Capt.), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Sanju Samson, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar.

The schedule: Dec. 9: Cuttack; Dec. 11: New Chandigarh; Dec. 14: Dharamshala; Dec. 17: Lucknow; Dec. 19: Ahmedabad.