The BCCI’s Senior National Selection Committee on Monday announced the Indian squads for the Australia tour, comprising four Test matches, three ODIs and three T20Is, the team’s first international outing since the COVID-19 lockdown. According to the BCCI release, the Selection Committee met via video-conference on Monday to pick the squads.
In a big setback to India, Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the upcoming Australia tour with a hamstring injury he picked up in the ongoing IPL. While Ishant was ruled out of the IPL much earlier with an abdominal muscle tear and he had returned to India. The BCCI said in a statement that they will “continue to monitor the progress of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma.”
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. India’s openers in Rohit’s absence are Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, just like was the case for the New Zealand Tests earlier this year. The BCCI also announced that four additional fast bowlers — Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T. Natarajan — will be travelling with the Indian contingent.
Test squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Uesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj.
ODI squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-capt/wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur
T20I squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-capt/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.