NEW DELHI: Shikhar Dhawan’s return was the highlight as the selectors on Monday named the squads for next month’s T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka and Australia, respectively.
As reported by this newspaper, Jasprit Bumrah has come back after recovering from injury. Rohit Sharma has been rested for the matches against Sri Lanka.
Bumrah was out with a stress fracture. He will play for Gujarat in a Ranji Trophy match against Kerala in Surat from December 25. Fellow paceman Mohammed Shami, who played the T20Is against the West Indies, has been left out.
With Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar injured, Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur stay in the squad as fast bowlers.
Dhawan had been left out following a lean run and did not do much of note in domestic cricket in the meantime. While resting Rohit considering the volume of cricket he has played in 2019, the selectors chose to overlook others and opted for Dhawan.
It’s possible that they want a left-right combination looking ahead to next year’s WT20.
In Dhawan’s absence, KL Rahul has done a good job as an opener, in ODIs as well as in T20Is. It will be interesting to see what happens, when Rohit returns for the Australia series, with Dhawan and Rahul both available. For the Sri Lanka T20Is, Sanju Samson is in the squad as the third opener, said, chief selector MSK Prasad.
The rest of the batting line-up has no surprise, with Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Shivam Dube in the T20I squad alongside wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Kedar Jadhav retains his place in the ODI side.
As far as spinners go, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravindra Jadeja are part of both squads. Off-spinner Washington Sundar is in the T20 squad as the fourth spinner. This shows that despite Jadeja gaining in stature, the think tank wants two wrist spinners in the scheme of things.
However, there was no information on MS Dhoni’s availability.
“I can’t comment on that. Mahi has to first play to be available for selection,” said Prasad, chairman of the selection committee.
Pandya in A team
Hardik Pandya is back in the India A team for the tour of New Zealand next year. He is part of the squad for three one-day games against New Zealand A.
The all-rounder had suffered a back injury and did not play for India since the T20I series against South Africa in September.
The teenager Shubman Gill has been named captain of the A team for the one-dayers.
As reported by this newspaper, India’s Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha are part of the A-team for a four-day match against New Zealand A.
They will play that game as preparation for the Test series that follows. Prithvi Shaw is included in the squads for the one-day and four-day games.
The Squads:
India Squad (T20Is against Sri Lanka): Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Manish Pandey, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson.
India Squad (ODI vs Australia): Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah.