Even before the IPL final is to be played, big news has come in for the upcoming India tour of Australia. Indian skipper Virat Kohli will return home after the opening Day-Night Test (which will be played in Adelaide) after the BCCI decided to grant paternity leave to the soon-to-be father. This means that India will be playing three of the four Border-Gavaskar Tests without Kohli.
Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane is likely to be leading the side in Kohli’s absence. Rahane has previously captained against Australia and Afghanistan in red-ball cricket. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has been added to the Test squad for the upcoming tour but he will not be a part of the white-ball squads. He has been granted rest by the board and will be rehabbing. Rohit picked up a hamstring niggle during IPL 2020 and he is being taken care of by the BCCI’s medical team. Ishant Sharma who was ruled out of the IPL is currently rehabbing at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. If he becomes fully fit, he will be added to the Test squad.
Meanwhile, Sanju Samson has been named as the second keeper for the One-Day side. In the initial 50-over side, only KL Rahul, India’s new One-Day VC, was named as a keeper. Rishabh Pant was left out of white-ball squads but he is a part of the red-ball squad as a keeper. In a statement, the BCCI said that the selection committee added Sanju Samson as an additional wicketkeeper to the ODI squad.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the series with a shoulder injury. The Chennai-based Leg spinner, who recently earned his maiden call-up to the national team for the T20Is due to his good performances in the IPL, will be replaced by fellow statesman and left-arm pacer T. Natarajan who is one of the finds of IPL 2020.
Revised Squads:
T20I squad: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (VC, WK), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan.
ODI squad: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (VC, WK), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Sanju Samson (WK).
Test squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj.
