Indian cricket team for Australia series: The Indian selection committee has announced squads across formats for the tour of Australia.
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The Indian selection committee has announced squads for the upcoming tour of Australia which will comprise of three ODIs, three T20Is and four Test matches. While BCCI is yet to give an official nod regarding the fixtures, the tour is likely to begin with the first ODI from November 27.
Tamil Nadu spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who registered the first five-wicket haul of IPL 2020 as recent as yesterday, has been handed a maiden T20I call-up on the back of an impressive season. Other than Chakravarthy, opening batsman Mayank Agarwal has also been handed a maiden T20I call-up.
Sydney has decent sized boundaries and Canberra is a huge field. That, and the mystery factor, would make Chakravarthy a tactical selection https://t.co/oLffYRiKk9
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 26, 2020
Talking about the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League, current highest run-scorer Lokesh Rahul has been named as the vice-captain across white-ball formats in addition to taking the wicket-keeping duty.
While wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson has retained his place, opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and fast bowler Nitin Saini have made comebacks into the team. It will be interesting to know if Pandya has been selected as a specialist batsman or an all-rounder.
In what has come as a huge blow, limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma hasn’t been included in any squad due to his ongoing hamstring injury in the IPL. Other than Sharma, the likes of wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant, all-rounder Shivam Dube, spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Shardul Thakur haven’t been included in the T20I squad.
The 15-man ODI squad doesn’t involve many eye-catching changes other than opening batsman Prithvi Shaw and Pant getting dropped. Injured pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar also missed out on selection. Barring the trio, all other players are the same which were selected in the 15-man squad for the South Africa series in March. Opening batsman Mayank Agarwal and pacer-duo of Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur have been reinstated into the ODI team.
Apart from Rohit Sharma, another notable omission from the Test team is that of pacer Ishant Sharma who also got injured during IPL 2020. The 31-year old player remains the only player who had toured New Zealand for a two-match Test series earlier this year but won’t travel to Australia.
While Rahul and spinner Kuldeep Yadav have been handed respective comebacks into the Test team, pacer Mohammed Siraj has been included as Ishant Sharma’s replacement.
Indian cricket team for Australia series
T20I squad – Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vc and wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy.
ODI squad – Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vc & wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
Test squad – Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj.
