According to emerging sources, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are slated to return to India’s ODI squad for the upcoming Australia series. In fact, India’s leading news agency PTI claimed that Rohit would captain the Indians and that Bumrah and Gill, with their seniority, will possibly be rested on workload-management imperatives.
On Saturday, the BCCI selection committee is likely to announce the final Indian squad. The report reveals that the ODI series will be the staging ground for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to once again make their presence felt, while Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant might miss the ODI series due to injuries. Nitish Kumar Reddy appears to be the strongest contender to fill Andrew’s role in the Indian ODI squad for the series against Australia.
Sanju Samson, however, has played some important knocks for India in Asia Cup and is likely to edge out Dhruv Jurel for the second wicketkeeper’s slot, with KL Rahul being the first-choice keeper-batsman for India in ODIs. In the 16 ODIs Samson has played, he has scored 510 runs at an average of 56.7 and a strike rate of 99.6.
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The PTI report mentions that the BCCI selectors do not find a compelling value in looking past Rohit Sharma as the Indian captain in the 50-over format at the moment. So, the veteran opener will make his ODI return alongside Virat Kohli, who is an established number three in this format for India.
In contrast, Shubman Gill will likely be rested, protecting against overwork after his participation in the England Tests, Asia Cup, and the home series against the West Indies. Bumrah too might be joining Gill on the bench, considering the number of international assignments since the England tour.
If Gill is rested, we expect the selectors to pick either Abhishek Sharma or Yashasvi Jaiswal as Rohit Sharma’s opening partner for the ODI series. And, we feel, Siraj might make his ODI return in Bumrah’s absence.
India’s Probable Squad for Australia ODIs
Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (WK), KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Reddy, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakravarthy, Washington Sundar/Kuldeep Yadav
