The BCCI on Monday, November 21 announced India's squad for the upcoming five-match series against Australia, a day after a heartbreaking loss in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final against the same opposition. Suryakumar Yadav is set to lead the side, which is mostly the one that played the Ireland series, apart from a few players who were in the World Cup squad. With the likes of Surya, Ishan Kishan and Axar Patel coming back, Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal were the unfortunate ones to miss out.
While Samson has been on the downward curve, as far as his form is concerned, Chahal's form in ODIs hasn't been impressive. However, despite the World Cup snub, it felt like Yuzvendra Chahal was still considered a surety in T20Is and even played the West Indies series. However, Chahal's low returns of late and the emergence of Ravi Bishnoi have resulted in the veteran leggie's ouster from the squad.
After the snub, Chahal came up with a smiling emoji as his reaction on social media. Chahal had shared 'sun will rise again' emoji after his ouster from the World Cup squad and the recent snub might be really telling regarding how much he plays for India in the future.
While Chahal may be sidelined, there was a comeback of another veteran spinner Axar Patel, who was ruled out of the World Cup due to an untimely injury in the Asia Cup. Axar, Bishnoi and Washington Sundar will form the spin trio with Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar taking over the pace duties.
India squad for Australia T20 series: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (last two T20Is)