Suryakumar Yadav will officially lead Team India in the upcoming T20I series against Australia as the Men in Blue look to put the World Cup disappointment aside. India will play Australia in a five-match T20I series which kickstarts on Thursday (Nov 23) with second-string players set to take guard. The 15-member squad sees the return of Arshdeep Singh while Axar Patel also makes his comeback into the squad having missed out on the ODI World Cup with an injury, while there was no place for Yuzvendra Chahal.

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India announce squad for Australia series

While speculations were firm on Surya’s captaincy role, it was made official on Monday (Nov 20) evening, 24 hours after India’s defeat to Australia in the World Cup final. This will be the first time he leads the Indian side with senior players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah being rested after a long World Cup campaign.

The squad comes with no big surprises but Chahal’s exclusion could be the end of his spell with the national side as the selectors showed no faith in him. Chahal was dropped for the ODI World Cup in India while he was not considered when Axar Patel was injured with Ravichandran Ashwin getting the nod.

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Meanwhile, young players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh who were not considered for the World Cup are given the opportunity to shine. Both of them were included in the Asian Games squad that won the gold medal in Hangzhou. Captain of that side Rurutaj Gaikwad will also take guard in the series as deputy to Suryakumar Yadav.

Arshdeep Singh who shined for India in the T20 World Cup is also in the mix while Tilak Varma continues to lead the baton for upcoming stars. He had an outside chance of making the Indian World Cup squad but missed out after competition for places.

India’s squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), 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 (to join the side for the last two T20Is).

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