Cricket Australia is also not sure whether India’s cricket superstar and huge crowd puller Virat Kohli will be available for the whole tour which ends on January 19. The tour will kick start from November 27 with the ODI series followed by the T20I series while the four-match Test series will begin from December 17.
As Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma is expecting her first child in January while the decision yet to be taken to allow cricketers to travel with families in Australia, questions have been raised on the availability of Team India’s captain for the entire tour.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s squad a day before the announcement of the schedule of the tour. Virat Kohli has been included in the squad of all three formats as Team India looks to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Cricket Australia interim CEO Nick Hockley was inquired about the availability of the flamboyant batsman, but he was also uncertain.
“He’s in the squad … I think that’s a matter for Virat,” said Nick Hockley, CA’s interim CEO, when asked about the Indian maestro at the SCG on Wednesday.
As far as Indian players travelling with their families is concerned, CA stated that talks are going on with BCCI on that matter.
We’re working through that at the moment with the BCCI and the Australian government,” Hockley said. “It will have to be a compelling case obviously for families to come.”
As per reports in The Sydney Herald Morning, a CA source said the Indian team had asked to have about a dozen family members allowed into the country.
However, whether Virat Kohli will return home before the completion of the series to attend his first childbirth or will be doing his national duty, nothing has yet been made clear.