India in Australia, 2020-21

[PKBasu]

India will tour Australia to play T20Is (starting in late-November), ODIs and four tests. Rohit and Ishant Sharma haven't been considered because they are currently nursing injuries.

Here are the squads:

Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

Team India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur

Team India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj

[PKBasu]

I am amazed that Shardul Thakur gets into the ODI squad again. What the hell do the selectors see in him? Navdeep Saini has to be lucky to be selected in all three squads.
Varun Chakravarthy gets rewarded for some nice IPL performances. The T20I squad is really based on the best batting strike rates in the IPL, as desired by prasen9!

[PKBasu]

Actually the tour starts with the 3 ODIs (the first on 27 November), then the T20Is, and finally the tests -- but the first test is the Day/Night test at Adelaide from 17th December, followed by Melbourne (starting on Boxing Day, 26 December), Sydney (7-11 January) and finally at Brisbane (15-19 January).

Rishabh Pant as test specialist is a very interesting development! Who would have thought that possible a few months ago? Mayank at last is in all 3 squads. I hope he gets to play all three formats.

[prasen9]

So the T20I XI is based on basically everyone who played for us in the recent past + Mayank. Missing are Surya, Tewatia and Kishan. And of course, SS Tiwary. Is he still an awful fielder?

Another player missing is Shivam Dube. Instead, the tuktuk players Rahul, Iyer, and Pandey are in. I would have at least left out Pandey and kept Dube. The reason is that if you have an injury to Hardik and Jadeja, who do you play at the #6/#7 slot? Dube may not be that great but he is a better hitter than Pandey at the lower order. And Rayudu. While Rayudu is slow and old, he has been faster than Pandey and Kohli.

Best bowlers by economy at the IPL: Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Chahal, Tewatia, Varun, Mishra, Chahar.
By average: Dube, Chahal, M Ashwin, Bumrah, Shami, Arshdeep, R. Chahar, A. Patel
By SR: Shami, Arshdeep, Bumrah, M. Ashwin, Chahal, Siraj, Mavi, Thakur, Khaleel

Difficult to choose. But, given their past performances, I am fine choosing Chahal, Bumrah, Shami. Don't know about Varun. Will he be useful in Australia?

[Sin Hombre]

Rayadu is a terrible fielder and plays faster when the games are lost. Very little runs of value.

Agree about the tuk-tuk selections in general. I like Samson has been selected over Pant, on form.

Iyer, Samson, Hardik, Jadeja can be 4, 5, 6, 7. Hopefully they play Mayank in the top 3 otherwise it will be all tuk-tuk with Kohli and KL and a guaranteed lost cause.

I do like KL being shoe-horned as a wicketkeeper in ODIs. If he wants to play in the 50-over format, that is his only option imo. His tuk-tuk style is ok for ODIs.

Worried about the test xi. Without Ishant, who is going to be the guy who keeps bowling long spells with intensity. Umesh is a spray gun outside India and Saini has proven nothing.

[prasen9]

I would go Dhawan, Mayank, Kohli, Samson, Rahul, Hardik, Jadeja, Chahal, Chahar, Bumrah, Shami. This is an awfully long tail. I sincerely hope Hardik can bowl and then we can add Iyer to the batting to make it stronger.

In ODIs, the proven players are: Kohli, Dhawan, Rahul, Iyer. Put in the two hitters Hardik and Jadeja. I guess I'd throw in Pandey. I don't mind Mayank either. Or both. I'd go with: Dhawan, Mayank, Kohli, Rahul, Iyer, Pandey, Hardik, Jadeja, Chahal/Kuldeep, Bumrah, Shami. This is assuming Hardik can bowl. Otherwise, we have to lengthen the tail and get in perhaps both the spinners because I have no faith in Saini or Thakur in ODIs yet. Perhaps Thakur because he can bat.

[indiansportsfan]

Pathetic selections. I don't have much faith we will be able to win much.
Also Rahul should not be part of T20 squad (we already have Samson as WK), but I guess there is nobody to replace him, as they didn't select Surya.

[prasen9]

So we are banking on Varun based on about 10-11 IPL matches? If so, why not Tewatia? He can at least bat too. Players like him can be useful in the other side even if he fails on one.

For tests, I would choose: Mayank, Prithvi, Pujara, Rahane, Kohli, Vihari, Pant, Jadeja, Yadav, Shami, Bumrah.

[Sin Hombre]

Pathetic selections. I don't have much faith we will be able to win much.
Also Rahul should not be part of T20 squad (we already have Samson as WK), but I guess there is nobody to replace him, as they didn't select Surya.

Both Kohli and KL cannot be part of the T20 xi. Way too much tuk-tuk at the top of the order which eats away most of the 120 balls.

Tests, I agree that we are going to lose. 3rd fast bowler is wasted and I have no confidence in the batting lineup.

T20, we have a chance as long as they do not play both Virat and KL.

ODIs are our best shot at winning anything.

[prasen9]

Rahul will not open in T20Is. It will be Dhawan and Mayank with Rahul keeping and coming in the middle order. Because he will be keeping. It makes sense to give him a bit of a rest before he bats.

[Sin Hombre]

I saw Dhawan's last couple of innings but his natural tendency is tuk-tuk. Would rather throw Samson as an opener then unless Dhawan is explicitly told that a 120-130 S/R will lead to being dropped.

[prasen9]

The problem is that the whole culture is old school. You cannot have Kohli as the captain and not expect at least one batsman at one end do tuk-tuk. Yes, Dhawan is also a very slow batsman. But, if Dhawan is in the 16, he possibly is in the team. Most back benchers are new folks. I expect Gil and Pandey to be the backup types.

[PKBasu]

Yes, picking Varun over Tewatia was a poor choice. The latter is a steady, solid bowler with the ability to bat superbly under pressure (as he proved at least once this IPL season). Varun has benefited from recency bias.

[PKBasu]

I think it is highly likely that both Ishant and Rohit Sharma will be fit in time for the tests, which are nearly two months away. Ishant will add to the potency of the attack, undoubtedly. At the moment, the test attack looks a bit toothless.

[Rajiv]

Varun Chakravarthy is a big surprise package, saw his records for TN FC, and TN A team's for last year and hardly anything inspiring in that to take notice.
Basically it seems you take one 5fer in an IPL match and you get a call for Team India, just hope that he does well.