After the disappointment of the World Cup final loss to Australia, India now have a chance for redemption ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024. While the event is six months away, the preparation will begin from now in the upcoming T20 series against Australia. While incumbent T20 series Hardik Pandya is ruled out of the series due to an ankle injury, India have managed to put up a good second-string team for the five-match T20 series sans Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, & Jasprit Bumrah.
Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side, which sees the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, & Yashasvi Jaiswal in the mix. All these players last featured in the Asian Games and also played SMAT 2023 trophy. With Kohli, Rohit, and Rahul unlikely to feature in the T20 World Cup, the Australia T20 series presents a golden opportunity for these players to showcase their humongous talent against World Champions.
Like Rahul Dravid did last year by identifying players ahead of the World Cup, this time India is also keen to identify the players’ core group for the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to begin on June 04, 2024, in West Indies and USA.
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Focus on T20 WC after 50-over World Cup disappointment for India
Hardik Pandya, the all-rounder was missed big time for India during the knockout stages of the WC. His absence impacted the team’s balance. India does not want to make the same mistake ahead of T20 WC and have gone on to include as many as four all-rounders for the series against Australia. Tilak Varma, Sundar, Axar Patel, and Shivam Dube – all four players are very capable with bat and ball.
Apart from the T20 series against Australia, India will also play T20 series against South Africa, Afghanistan, and England ahead of T20 WC. But the series against Australia will be the key as India have to identify core players sans Hardik Pandya for now.
India squad for T20 series against AUS: 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
