The BCCI has announced a 16 member squad for the first three ODIs against Australia. India will be taking on the Aussies in a 5 match ODI series starting from September 17th. The Indian cricket team will be led by Virat Kohli with Rohit Sharma handling the deputy charges. The selection panel headed by MSK Prasad has decided to rest Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. However, Ashwin will continue to play for Worcestershire all this while. The spin department of the team will, therefore, be handled by Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal. This will prove to be a major stepping stone for these young spinners as they will be up against the likes of Warner, Smith, and Maxwell.
Coming to the pace department, Mohd Shami and Umesh Yadav are back into the team while Shardul Thakur misses out. Shardul Thakur, who made his debut against Sri Lanka in the recently concluded series, picked up just one wicket in his two matches.
Australia has recently finished their Test series against Bangladesh on a high. The Kangaroos defeated the Bangladeshis in the final test and are restored with some much-needed confidence.
Here’s the 16-member Indian squad for the first three ODIs:
Indian Cricket Team for first 3 ODIs
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice captain), MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chala, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav.
The venues for ODI series are Chennai, Kolkata, Indore, Bengaluru, and Nagpur. A 3 match T20 series will also be played after the ODI series. The venues for the T20 series have been finalized as Ranchi, Guwahati, and Hyderabad.
