The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the limited-overs squad for the tour of Australia in December. The All-India Senior Selection Committee, who met via video-conference to select the Indian Cricket Team, named a 16-man squad for the T20Is and a 15-member team for the ODI series. Rishabh Pant has been dropped from both the squads, while young Varun Chakravarthy earned his maiden India call-up in the T20I format.
Rohit Sharma, India's limited-overs deputy, who is currently recovering from a hamstring injury he picked up in the UAE during IPL 2020, has not been included in any of the squads. In his absence, KL Rahul, who is presently leading Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2020 and has done a rather impressive job in the team's path to revival, will be taking over Rohit's role in the Indian squad for ODIs and T20Is.
Rahul will be India's primary-choice wicketkeeper as usual while Sanju Samson has been picked as the back-up option with Pant being omitted. The latter was benched for the New Zealand series as well without a single game which was followed by a struggling IPL season in the UAE where he has recorded a strike rate of 116.8, the lowest in his five IPL-season appearances.
One of the notable inclusions has been the addition of Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Chakravarthy, the only bowler to take a fi-fer this season. He is also KKR's highest wicket-taker this season with 12 scalps at an economy rate of 7.05 and was the second-highest wicket-taker in the 2018-19 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy with 22 strikes at an economy rate of 4.23.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya has been included in the limited-overs squad for the first time since being sidelined with a back injury in September 2019. However, it is most likely that he will play as a specialist batsman given that he hasn't bowled in the ongoing IPL 2020 as Mumbai Indians management has adopted a cautious approach as admitted by the franchise's director of cricket operations Zaheer Khan.
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
