India will take on Australia in the first T20I of the three-match series starting from Wednesday (November 21).
On the eve of the match, the BCCI has announced the 12-man squad. Middle-order batsman Manish Pandey failed to make a cut in the playing XI, making way for skipper Virat Kohli, who was rested for the home T20I series against West Indies. He also took back the leadership charge from his deputy, Rohit Sharma.
India’s 12-man squad has some automatic choices in form of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and others. As per the list, Rishabh Pant has been named as the wicket-keeper, which means Dinesh Karthik will not keep the wickets in Brisbane.
The same thing was mentioned earlier but Karthik sat behind the stumps in the series against West Indies. In this series though, such a thing is unlikely to happen as Karthik might not also get to play all the three games. He is not a part of the ODI squad at present as the team management is backing Rishabh for the job going into the 2019 World Cup.
Krunal Pandya is the only all-rounder in the squad and is also a confirmed selection. Either of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will play as Krunal, apart from batting, also bowls his complete four overs.
All the three pacers i.e. Bumrah, Bhuvi and Khaleel Ahmed are likely to be part of the playing XI.
Here is India’s 12-man squad:
Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal
