Veteran left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra has made a comeback in the 15-member Indian team, while selectors have, once again, ignored senior spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for the three-match T20 series against Australia, starting 7 October.
The selectors decided to drop Ajinkya Rahane, who struck four back-to-back half centuries in the just concluded ODI series as his game is not considered to be suitable for the shortest format.
Shikhar Dhawan made a comeback to the side after missing out on the ODI series due to his wife's health issues. Test specialists Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami have also been dropped from the T20 squad. While seasoned Dinesh Karthik pipped young Rishabh Pant, primarily due to his current form as well as wealth of experience.
Pant is expected to play for India A in the five match List A series against the New Zealand A.
"Ashish Nehra played the last full T20 series against England earlier in 2017. He was in contention to play Champions Trophy, but an injury during IPL dashed his hopes. India's last two T20s were one off games against West Indies and Sri Lanka, so Ashish wasn't picked," a BCCI official privy to selection matters told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The other significant development is Ashwin and Jadeja being ignored once again.
With Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel giving a good account of themselves, it was going to be very difficult for Ashwin and Jadeja to make a comeback.
Ashwin has had a decent County outing for Worcestershire.
The decision is an indication that the burly Tamil Nadu tweaker is slowly falling off the radar as far as limited overs cricket is concerned.
(This article has been published in partnership with PTI)
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