However, there was no room for Sanju Samson and Shahbaz Ahmed, who were part of Ireland’s T20Is squad in August. Rayyan Parag, who almost single-handedly carried Assam to the semi-finals of the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and Abhishek Sharma, the player of the tournament, were unable to find a place either.
Apart from Axar, Washington Sundar is the other all-rounder. Shivam Dubey, too, is in the mix, but he has bowled only sporadically of late, serving just four overs in eight matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Ravi Bishnoi is the only wrist spinner in the team.
This is the first time that Suryakumar will lead India. Previously, he captained Mumbai in 36 matches across domestic cricket formats. Earlier this year, he also captained Mumbai Indians against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
The first match of the series will be played in Visakhapatnam before the caravan moves on to Thiruvananthapuram (November 26), Guwahati (November 28), Raipur (December 1) and Bengaluru (December 3). VVS Laxman, who coached the India men’s team to a gold medal in the Asian Games, will be in charge of the five T20Is.
India lineup for Australia T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yashavi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh. ., Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (Vice-Captain, only available for the last two T20Is)
