India has announced the 15-man squad for the remaining 2 ODIs against Australia. Axar Patel, who had sprained his left ankle during the practice session ahead of the first ODI, has returned to the squad.
Ravindra Jadeja, who was called in as the backup for Axar, has been dropped. Shikhar Dhawan had pulled out of the first 3 ODIs to be with her unwell wife, he gets an extended break and hasn’t been included in the squad.
The selectors have cleared the intention of giving an extended run to the left-arm spinner Axar. He has featured in 34 ODIs for India and bagged 41 wickets at an average of 29.53 and an economy rate of 4.30.
Jadeja didn’t find a place in the XI in any of the first 3 ODIs and once again, he has been left out of the squad. The off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin too is kept away from the limited overs squad.
Axar bowled well on the Sri Lanka tour and hence gets another break in the team. India is keen to invest in the 2 wrist spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. The duo has done a tremendous job in the ongoing ODI series so far. They have proved to be the vital cog and a flesh in the thorn for the Australian batsmen who just haven’t been able to find answers to handle the young spinners.
India has already won the series 3-0 with 2 matches to be played in Bengaluru and Nagpur on September 28 and October 1 respectively. The ODI series will be followed by 3 T20Is to be played in Ranchi, Guwahati and Hyderabad on October 7, 10 and 13 respectively.
India’s Squad for the last 2 Australian ODIs
Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel.
