Mumbai, Nov 21: Number one ranked T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav will lead India during the five-match T20I series against Australia at home, starting from November 23 onwards.“The men’s selection committee announced the squad for the upcoming 5-match T20I series against Australia scheduled to start from November 23, 2023 in Visakhapatnam,” said a statement by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The first match will take place at Visakhapatnam on November 23, just four days after the conclusion of India’s ICC Cricket World Cup campaign at home with a loss to Australia by six wickets in the final at Ahmedabad.
The second T20I will be played on November 26 in Thiruvananthapuram followed by the third match on November 28 in Guwahati. The fourth match will be taking place on December 1 in Raipur while the fifth and final match will take place on December 3 in Bengaluru.
Hardik Pandya, India’s star all-rounder who led Men in Blue in T20Is in many series this year, will miss out due to ankle injury sustained during the Cricket World Cup league stage match against Bangladesh.
Shreyas Iyer will join the squad as vice-captain for the last two T20Is in Raipur and Bengaluru. For the first three T20Is, Ruturaj Gaikwad will be the deputy of Suryakumar.
Sanju Samson does not find a place in the squad. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Jitesh Sharma among other youngsters, who were a part of India’s gold-medal winning team at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, are also in the squad.
Suryakumar, Shreyas, Ishan Kishan and pacer Prasidh Krishna are the only players who featured in the Cricket World Cup this year. The seniors Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami are not in 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.