Due to Hardik Pandya’s ongoing ankle injury, Suryakumar Yadav will take on the role of captain for the five-match T20I series against Australia, commencing on November 23. Ruturaj Gaikwad will act as vice-captain for the initial three games, passing the responsibility to Shreyas Iyer for the final two matches.
From the World Cup squad, only Suryakumar, Ishan Kishan, and Prasidh Krishna have been included for the entire series. Axar Patel, who was previously sidelined from the World Cup due to a quadriceps strain, has also made a return. Sanju Samson and Shahbaz Ahmed, however, have not been included, despite their participation in the Ireland T20Is in August.
The T20Is will commence shortly after India’s second-place finish in the World Cup final on Sunday in Ahmedabad. The series will begin in Visakhapatnam before moving to Thiruvananthapuram (November 26), Guwahati (November 28), Raipur (December 1), and Bengaluru (December 3).
India’s squad for Australia T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-capt), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (vice-capt, available only for last two T20Is)
