Chahal, Samson overlooked, SKY to lead India in T20I series

Suryakumar Yadav will lead India in their five-match T20I series against Australia which begins days after their heartbreaking defeat against Australia in the ICC World Cup 2023 final.

The two sides locked horns just four days after the World Cup final at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium with the first of the first T20Is taking place in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

Surya’s rise to captaincy in the shortest format comes after an ankle injury to Hardik Pandya, who led India in the T20Is after the T20 World Cup last year. However, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee ignored senior players Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal in their squad for the upcoming series.

Pandya suffered an ankle injury during India’s group match against Bangladesh in Pune during the recently concluded World Cup. The injury – later revealed to be a ligament tear – not only ruled him out of the rest of the World Cup as well as Australia’s T20Is, it also overshadowed his participation in the white-ball leg. upcoming tour of South Africa starting December.

Surya, who is India’s designated vice-captain in the shortest format, did not get the best of runs in the World Cup after replacing Pandya in the middle order. SKY collected just 106 runs in seven outings at an average of 17.66, the highest of which was a 47-ball 49 against England on a tough wicket in Lucknow, and could only manage 18 off 28 balls in the final in against Australia.

The Mumbai Indians star will hope to make up for his underwhelmed run in the World Cup with a series of strong performances in the upcoming series against Australia.

Test and ODI skipper Rohit Sharma has not been part of the T20I set-up since leading the Men in Blue to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year, and neither Virat Kohli nor Mohammed Shami, who finished top of the list hurlers and the respective competitors in the World Cup.

The decision to drop Samson, the batsman who is also a Test opener, and leg-spinner Chahal will surprise many fans and pundits, especially after forgetting the recently concluded World Cup .

India instead decided to pick Jitesh Sharma as the designated batsman, with the likes of Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad to play as batsmen.

Kishan was part of the World Cup but he only appeared in the first two matches against Australia and Afghanistan as a substitute for Shubman Gill, who was suffering from a bout of dengue. Gaikwad, who led India to the Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, has been named vice-captain for the series.

In the spin department, the selectors have gone with Ravi Bishnoi over Chahal as arm-spinner along with finger-spinners Washington Sundar and Axar Patel, who were initially named in India’s World Cup squad but were later replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin as due to left quadriceps. pressure suffered in the Asian Cup.

The left-arm pace department comprises seamer Arshdeep Singh along with right-arm options Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar. Shivam Dube is also expected to share some of the seam bowling duties alongside the opening options.

Meanwhile, the Aussies will be captained by Matthew Wade and the squad will feature a number of World Cup winners including opener Cynn, who has been dubbed the ‘Player of the Finals’.

As well as Ceannaire, senior batsmen David Warner and Steve Smith, all-tournament players Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stonis, leg-spinner Adam Zampa and batsman Josh Inglis were retained.

Regular Pat Cummins has retired from the series along with fellow pacers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood.

The series will kick off preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup, which will take place immediately after the Indian Premier League ends and will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the USA.

India squad for Australia T20I: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), 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