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India T20I squad for AUS tour: Did India make the right calls? | Analysing India’s T20I squad for their Australia tour – key points
The much-awaited squads of India’s tour of Australia were picked by the Indian selection committee, led by Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh. As always, the Indian squads have a lot of talking points, surprising selections, notable omissions and a few controversies.
India’s tour to Australia will begin with a three-match ODI series in Sydney on 27th November, followed by the 2nd ODI on 29th November. The action will move to Canberra on 1st and 4th of December with the 3rd ODI and 1st T20I, before the cricket returns back to Sydney for the final two T20Is on December 6 and 8.
India’s 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, Mohammad Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy
What more does SKY have to do?
The most surprising point of India’s T20I squad was the notable omission of Suryakumar Yadav. The top-order batsman has been in scintillating form for the Mumbai Indians over the last three seasons. In the ongoing IPL 2020 season, he has scored 362 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 155.36 and average of 40.22. In the 2018 and 2019 seasons, SKY had scored 512 and 424 runs respectively. Along with the IPL, he also scored 392 runs at a strike rate of over 160 and average of 43 in the 2019 Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy.
So, why did Suryakumar Yadav miss out on the T20I call-up? With the exclusion of Rishabh Pant, the squad needed a back-up wicket-keeper and Sanju Samson got the nod of the selectors. Yadav’s direct competition for the spot was with Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey. Both the players were a part of India’s playing XI against New Zealand in the 5-match T20I series earlier in 2020, where India whitewashed the Kiwis and the team management must have thought of not tinkering with the winning combination.
Too many anchors in the middle order?
In spite of India’s T20I series win against New Zealand, there were a lot of question marks over the number of batsmen with the same playing ‘style’ in the playing XI. While Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey are all exquisite top order batters, two of them playing at numbers 4 and 5 doesn’t really make sense, especially when the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant aren’t in the squad.
The team management may explore the option of playing Sanju Samson instead of Pandey or Iyer, to have the option of an accelerator in the XI. With Hardik Pandya included in the squad as a specialist batter and no Rishabh Pant, Pandya may well be promoted to the No. 5 slot.
Varun Chakravarthy gets his maiden call-up; Will only one wrist spinner work in T20I?
Varun Chakravarthy, the mystery spinner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, earned his maiden international call-up after impressive performances in IPL 2020. He has bowled at an economy rate of just over 7 RPO and has taken 12 wickets, including a 5-wicket haul against the Delhi Capitals.
However, the team just has 1 leg-spinner in Yuzvendra Chahal and with no Rahul Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav in the squad, India’s inclusion of just a solitary leg-spinner may turn out to be their weakness in the bigger grounds of Australia.
Also read: “It feels surreal” – Varun Chakravarthy
Mayank Agarwal included
On the back of an impressive IPL 2020 so far, where he is the sixth-highest run-scorer, Mayank Agarwal is included in the T20I squad. It will be interesting to see whether Mayank opens the batting with his long time friend KL Rahul, who has been named as the vice-captain in the limited overs sides. He can be edged by Shikhar Dhawan who is the second-highest run-scorer, after scoring two centuries in two matches during the ongoing IPL 2020 tournament.
No Rishabh Pant
Another notable omission was that of Rishabh Pant, who missed out on the wicketkeeping slot to KL Rahul and Sanju Samson. The Rajasthan Royals batsman was chosen as a backup keeper as Rahul was expected to be the first choice gloveman for India, as it was the case earlier this year in New Zealand.
Pant had not quite grasped the opportunities given to him in T20Is, and isn’t in the best of form in the ongoing IPL as well, where he is striking at just 115 in nine matches.
Also read: Has Rishabh Pant really not been backed in T20Is?
Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.
