Leading up to a World Cup at home, India have named left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat in the ODI squad against Australia. Also back in the 18-man squad are left-arm spinning allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, and middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer.
India will miss the services of Rohit Sharma for the first ODI – who will be unavailable due to family commitments, BCCI said in a release. Hardik Pandya will lead the side in Rohit’s place.
The likes of Shahbaz Ahmed and Rajat Patidar – who were part of the squad for the New Zealand series last month – have been left out. KL Rahul returns too, at the expense of KS Bharat.
ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat
India will head to the third and fourth Test against Australia – in Indore and Ahmedabad respectively – with the same squad that earned the wins at Nagpur and Delhi to help the team retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. KL Rahul has been retained despite poor returns but he isn’t the designated vice-captain of the side this time around.
Jaydev Unadkat, who was released to play in the Ranji Trophy final where he led Saurashtra to their second title, will be back with the squad for the third Test, starting on March 1. The fourth fixture of the series will be played from March 9.
Test Squad: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
