India vs Australia:
We will not see MS Dhoni this summer
New Delhi, 27 October: India has declared their squads for their upcoming T20Is, Test matches and ODIs against Australia when they visit Down Under with their summer tour starting next month.
The biggest name missing from the T20 team is the former captain of the team and mainstay in times of need after the exit of Rahul Dravid also known as ‘the wall’ – MS Dhoni.
Dhoni’s name did not figure in India’s Test squad either.
This surprised many but not some who had been questioning the missing brilliance in Dhoni’s batting of late
Virat Kohli will be leading the side and Rohit Sharma will be his deputy.
Allaying fears of those fans of Dhoni, the chief selector MSK Prasad said, “Dhoni’s not going to play the six T20Is because we’re looking at the second keeper slot. It is not the end of Dhoni in T20Is.”
The T20 squad has four spinners and four fast bowlers. The four spinners are – Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya.
And the four fast bowlers are – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed. Khaleel Ahmed has played against Australia A as part of India A teams when India A & India B played against Australia A and South Africa A in a quadrangular tournament earlier this year.
The Indian Test squad – playing the famous Boxing Day Test starting on Boxing Day, December 26 at the MCG, will see a few faces coming back – Murali Vijay and Parthiv Patel will be making their long overdue comeback with the bat. The new start of Indian cricket who has been munching cricket records for breakfast almost on a daily basis Prithvi Shaw hasretained his spot in the squad and so has and Hanuma Vihari. The team is going in with an attack of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Shikhar Dhawan has been ignored for the Test squad while Rohit Sharma has been included after missing out on a spot in the West Indies series. Rohit’s last trip to Australia for a Test series (2014) wasn’t so successful, making only a meagre 173 runs at 28.83.
But with his brilliant form, Rohit has made 473 runs at 118.25 across seven one-day matches, including two centuries and a high-score of 152 not out, only since September – a clear promise of some true cricketing fireworks!
Team for three T20I match series against Australia:
Virat Kohli (C), Rohit (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (WK), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed
Team for Four Test match series against Australia:
Virat Kohli (C), M Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Chateshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant(WK), Parthiv Patel, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shami, Ishant, Umesh, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
- -Vir Rajendra