India Name 12-Man Squad for T20I Series against Australia

After clean sweeping the Windies 3-0, India are scheduled to play three T20Is against Australia. The first match is scheduled to be played tomorrow at The Gabba in Brisbane.

The other two T20I matches are scheduled to be conducted in Melbourne and Sydney. India are currently at the second place while Australia are ranked third in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20I rankings.

The state of both the teams have been a total contrast. Australia are coming after losing the one-off T20I against South Africa in Queensland. On the other hand, the Men in Blue have totally demolished Carlos Brathwaite’s men.

Meanwhile the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have already announced the 12-man squad for the T20I series.

Virat Kohli, who was given a break against the Windies, will return to lead the team. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are the likely candidates to open the batting. KL Rahul might come at number three which will lead to interesting scenario of Kohli’s batting place.

Krunal Pandya has retained his place after performing well with both the bat and ball. Khaleel Ahmed has also been selected after he impressed the selectors with both the old and new ball.

Yuzvendra Chahal, who picked two wickets in Chennai after being benched in Kolkata and Lucknow, is also selected.

Kuldeep Yadav will surely make the top eleven and India will definitely not field three spinners. This means there would be a toss-up between Krunal and Chahal for the second-spinner place.

After playing as a specialist batsman against the Windies, Rishabh Pant has been selected as the designated wicketkeeper against Australia.

Here is the 12-man squad

Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (C), Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal