There really is no time to mourn, is there? Fans of the Indian cricket team who are still wondering how a 10-match winning streak ended in a bloody car crash on Sunday in Ahmedabad have the chance to wipe their eyes and switch focus, if they find the strength to care about it, to another series with Australia.
Such is the puzzling nature of the international cricket schedule that just four days after India’s abject surrender to Australia in the ODI World Cup final, the two teams now meet for five T20Is across 11 days – a series which, bizarrely, is the continuation of the Australian team’s tour to India just before the World Cup (three ODIs) and is overall their fifth contest in the country this year following the Border Gavaskar Trophy, two separate ODI series and now the World Cup.
This series marks the countdown to next year’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and North America, but it is really anyone’s guess as to how seriously the BCCI selectors are taking it. They have rested almost all of India’s frontline players given the amount of cricket played over the past four months – a tour to the West Indies, the Asia Cup, the Australia ODIs and the World Cup – and given that there are white-ball matches to be played in South Africa early next month.
India’s squad features just one player from the World Cup final, Suryakumar Yadav, who has been named captain for these five matches in Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Raipur and Bangalore. With regular T20I skipper Hardik Pandya still out with injury, Suryakumar has been tasked with marshalling a familiar-looking T20I squad made up of players who went to Ireland and the Asian Games, where a gold medal was secured.
Axar Patel returns after missing the World Cup, Ruturaj Gaikwad is the vice-captain for three matches, Ishan Kishan the frontline wicketkeeper and Washington Sundar the second allrounder. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dubey, Jitesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishan, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar are the others. Shreyas Iyer will link up with the squad for the last two games.
Just seven of Australia’s World Cup-winning squad have stayed back in India – Travis Head, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott – and the reserve spinner Tanveer Sangha. The allrounder Aaron Hardie has replaced David Warner, who withdrew from the initial squad for this series, and Kane Richardson has replaced Spencer Johnson.
The Australians will be captained by Matthew Wade, who 12 months ago thought his international career was over. The rest of the squad is made up of Tim David, Matthew Short, Jason Behrendorff and Nathan Ellis with Australia’s selectors managing the players’ workload given that there are just 11 days between the last T20I against India on December 3 and the first Test versus Pakistan in Perth.
November 23: 1st match, Visakhapatnam
November 26: 2nd match, Thiruvananthapuram
November 28: 3rd match, Guwahati
4th match: Raipur
5th match: Bangalore
India T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (last two matches only)
Australia T20I squad: Matthew Wade (c), Aaron Hardie, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa
