India’s squad for the tour down under has been announced and a total of 28 players have been selected across formats (Tests, ODI’s and T20’s). Two players who seem to be conspicuous by their absence are Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Ishant Sharma, who are currently injured and hence don’t feature in either of the squads.
Test Team: The notable inclusion in the test team is of KL Rahul, who seems to be enjoying a purple patch with the bat and has rightfully earned a call back in the squad. There are two wicket-keepers in the squad (Saha and Pant) while Kuldeep finds a place as the 3rd spinner in the team. Mohammad Siraj finds a place to thanks to his consistent exploits in the domestic games.
Test Squad:
Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj
ODI Team: KL Rahul has earned the status of vice-captain in the absence of Rohit Sharma, thanks to the way he has led KXIP from the front. Spin twins Kuldeep and Chahal find a spot in the team, Jadeja would add to the spin quotient. While Young Turk Shubman Gill finds a spot too. Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw, who opened for India against NZ don’t find a spot in the ODI squad.
ODI Squad:
Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul (vc&wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur
T20 Team: On familiar lines of the ODI squad, KL Rahul finds himself as the vice-captain of the team. Notable inclusions in the squad are Sanju Samson and Varun Chakravarthy who seem to have impressed with their IPL showings this season. Mayank Agarwal, who is currently in the midst of a red hot form finds a place in the squad too. Pant who is currently having an indifferent form this IPL has been left out of the squad along with Shivam Dude and Kuldeep Yadav.
T20 Squad:
Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul (vc & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy
Special note: 4 uncapped bowlers (Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel, and T. Natarajan) have been included as reserve net bowlers thanks to the bio-secure bubble.
