Selectors are to meet later this week in October to announce the squads for all the three formats together for the upcoming Australian tour, and they have been advised to pick a large squad comprising of probably 32 members keeping in mind back-up players being available in case of injuries to players during the tour.
India will tour Australia later this year in November to December end with a strong squad comprising 32 cricketers and will fly straight from Dubai for the tour which will commence after the conclusion of IPL 2020 on 10th November for the two-month tour comprising three T20Is, three ODIs, and four Test matches.
Selectors Advised To Pick As Large A Squad As They Want
The selectors are to meet later this week to announce the squads for all the three formats- Tests, ODIs and T20Is and a report states that the selection committee has been told to pick a large squad keeping in mind back-up players being available in case of injuries sustained by any player during the tour.
“They (selection committee) have been told to pick as large a squad as they want. We want back-up players ready and in Australia right through the tour. If a player gets injured, there shouldn’t be a situation where we have to call for a player from India,” said a BCCI official as quoted by the daily.
With pacers Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma injured, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar look certainties to be included in squad whereas it will be a toss-up between Shardul Thakur and Mohammad Siraj. The new faces may be Suryakumar Yadav, Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Mavi all of whom appear to be dark horses to be included in the squad. Batsman Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal are more or less certain after fine performances in IPL.
Selectors Will Travel Too To Australia But Families Will Not Be Allowed: Report
The report further adds that apart from the players a strong contingent of support staff and selectors will also travel to Australia, but families of players will not be allowed to travel with the team unlike in the IPL where the board left it to the franchises to take a decision on wives being allowed to travel to the UAE.
“Cricket Australia has sent us an itinerary. We will play three T20Is, three ODIs, and four Tests there. The first Test will be a day-night game in Adelaide. The dates haven’t been finalized yet,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said earlier this week.
India are all set to play a pink-ball day-night Test match under floodlights for the first time in Australia when they kick off their four-match Test series against Australia Down Under. India played only one-day night test against Bangladesh so far in November 2019.
Virat Kohli and his men will begin the tour at the end of November- December with three T20 Internationals and as many ODIs and 4 Test matches, although the dates are unknown. India won the four test match series in the previous tour in 2018-2019 by 2-1.