India Squad For Australia Tour To Be Announced This Week; Axar Patel In Contention
Published - 20 Oct 2020, 05:32 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:35 AM
The Sunil Joshi-led national selection panel is set to meet this week to pick up a jumbo squad for the much-anticipated Australia tour. Although, the official tour for the series’ is still to be announced, reports suggest that the limited-overs series (T20I and ODI) will held ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Test rubber.
Senior India fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s fitness is still a primary concern with the duo ruled out of the IPL 2020 due to their respective injury. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami will lead the fast bowling attack across formats for India while according to a report in PTI – Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur will fight for a place for the fifth fast bowler. The report also mentioned that spinner Axar Patel, currently plying his trade for Delhi Capitals in IPL, might also be included in the squad.
India vs Australia series much-anticipated
The Australian reported that the white-ball series might precede the four-Test series. It looks like a tactical decision as most of the players will join their national squad following the grueling IPL 2020 in the UAE. The report also confirmed the four venues finalized for the Test series.
“The tour will commence with a white-ball component before the four-Test series, at this stage, begins in Adelaide on December 17-21. Other venues include Melbourne (December 26-30), Sydney (January 7-11) and Brisbane (January 15-19),” the report said.
India’s tour Down Under is the most-anticipated series’ for Cricket Australia after the pandemic situation has hit the normal schedule. The board has made special arrangements for the series, including the bio-bubble, as the traditional four-Test series will help them to recover from the losses due to non-commencement of matches.
The hosting board has been hit by a major turmoil in the recent past, and it continues to worsen. The tussle between the cricket board and Channel 7 has taken another turn as reports suggest that a legal arbitration being pursued by the broadcaster owing to a ‘breach of contract’ by the board for ‘delivering a product not equal in quality to what was delivered the previous year’.
