MUMBAI: The senior national selection panel of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) met via video-conference on Monday to select the Indian cricket team for the upcoming Tour of Australia. Team India will take part in three T20Is, three ODIs and four Test matches against Australia.
The selection panel has named a 32-man strong squad – India’s largest touring contingent ever – for the three-month-long tour of Australia later this year.
Besides 28 cricketers who will feature in the three squads combined, the selection committee has named pacers Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T Natarajan who will travel to Australia as back-up.
The significant absentees are India’s white ball cricket vice-captain Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma.
While there is no official word on the reasons for Sharma’s absence, media reports point to the star batsman having suffered a hamstring injury.
“The BCCI Medical Team will continue to monitor the progress of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma,” stated a BCCI media release. Ishant, the pace spearhead, returned home from the IPL after getting injured during the league.
Meanwhile, Indian cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar has weighed in on Rohit’s absence, commenting: “… I think a little bit of transparency, a little bit of openness about what actually is the problem with him will help everybody. Because the Indian cricket fan deserves to know more than anything else. The franchises I understand, they don’t want to give their hand away because they’re trying to win the game, they don’t want to give the opposition any psychological advantage but we’re talking about an Indian team.
“Even Mayank Agarwal for example, Mayank Agarwal has not been playing… I think for the Indian cricket fan… they ought to know what is happening to two of their key players.”.
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
Four additional bowlers – Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T. Natarajan – will travel with the Indian contingent.
India’s tour of Australia is set to begin with the first ODI taking place on November 27. The final game of the tour will end on January 19 with the end of India’s four-Test series.
