The BCCI has announced the Indian squads for the upcoming tour of Australia- the team’s first international outing since the COVID-19 lockdown forced the home series against South Africa to be called off midway in March.
According to the BCCI release, the Selection Committee met via video-conference on Monday to pick the squads.
India is playing three T20Is, three ODIs and four Test matches against Australia.
One big omission from all 3 squads is Rohit Sharma who is currently sitting out of Mumbai Indians’ games due to a hamstring injury. The BCCI said they are continuing to monitor his and Ishant Sharma’s progress.
In Rohit’s absence, KL Rahul has been named the vice-captain for India’s ODI and T20I squads. In fact, he has also been picked as the wicket-keeper in the two formats, meaning Rishabh Pant is only part of the Test squad. Sanju Samson, based on his performance for Rajasthan Royals’, has been picked as a wicket-keeper in the T20I team.
A new name to enter the dressing room on this tour will be KKR’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy who picked up 5/20 in their last outing. He has picked a total of 12 wickets for them this season.
The selectors picked a total of 28 players for the three squads, out of which seven find place in all three squads. They are Virat Kohli, who was named captain across formats, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Navdeep Saini.
With Ishant’s fitness in doubt, RCB’s match-winning pacer Mohammed Siraj has been picked in the Test squad.
Apart from the squads, four additional bowlers have been named to travel with the contingent. They are Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T. Natarajan.
Team India T20I Squad
Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy
Team India ODI Squad
Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur
Team India Test Squad
Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj
The schedule of the tour is yet to be officially announced by Cricket Australia though Sydney and Canberra are expected to host the T20 and ODI series. The Test series is likely to be played across venues with Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney the front-runners to host the four match series.
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