Mumbai: Suryakumar Yadav, the top-ranked T20I batter, has been appointed as the captain for India in the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia at home, commencing from November 23.
A statement released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the squad selection for the series scheduled to kick off on November 23, 2023, in Visakhapatnam. The first match is set to take place just four days after India’s ICC Cricket World Cup campaign concluded with a loss to Australia in the final at Ahmedabad.
The T20 series schedule includes matches on November 23 in Visakhapatnam, November 26 in Thiruvananthapuram, November 28 in Guwahati, December 1 in Raipur, and the final match on December 3 in Bengaluru.
Unfortunately, star all-rounder Hardik Pandya will miss out due to an ankle injury sustained during the Cricket World Cup league stage match against Bangladesh. Shreyas Iyer will join the squad as the vice-captain for the last two T20Is in Raipur and Bengaluru, while Ruturaj Gaikwad will assume the deputy role for the first three matches.
Notably, Sanju Samson is not included in the squad. Youngsters such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Jitesh Sharma, part of India’s gold-medal-winning team at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, are featured in the squad.
Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, and pacer Prasidh Krishna are the only players from the Cricket World Cup squad included in this series. The senior players Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Shami are not part of the team.
India’s Squad:
- Suryakumar Yadav (Captain)
- Ruturaj Gaikwad (Vice-Captain)
- Ishan Kishan
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Tilak Varma
- Rinku Singh
- Jitesh Sharma (wk)
- Washington Sundar
- Axar Patel
- Shivam Dubey
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Arshdeep Singh
- Prasidh Krishna
- Avesh Khan
- Mukesh Kumar.