Team India selectors likely to have a headache selecting pace attack for Australia tour

With Team India all set to travel down under for a complete tour of Australia, the selection committee is scheduled to meet under the chairmanship of Sunil Joshi to select the team for the series. The form of players in the ongoing IPL edition will surely influence the selection with several Indian players performing on the top of their mark. While Jasprit Bumrah is expected to be an automatic selection, on the other hand, Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini will also be in contention considering their current performances in the IPL. 

As per PTI sources, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur will be fighting it out for the fifth spot of pacer in the longest format of the game. The other four speedsters include Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, and Navdeep Saini. Meanwhile, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma shall be out of consideration, after sustaining an injury during the IPL 2020. Axar Patel is also likely to be in the books of selectors to tour Australia. 

"Siraj has really done well for India A over the past few seasons. I think he is a better red ball bowler and could be very handy in Australian conditions," former chairman of selectors MSK Prasad told PTI on Tuesday.

"Mavi could be given exposure as an extra pacer at least in white ball and maybe groomed later for red ball," Prasad added. In the limited-overs side, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar are most likely to find a spot owing to their current performances. Coming to the wicketkeepers in the team, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant will be in for the limited-overs side whereas Wriddhiman Saha should retain the gloves in Tests with Pant being the second option. 

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The selectors will also have a headache to pick the top-order of Team India as Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, and Shubman Gill having impressive performances under their belt. The spinners in limited-overs could be Washington Sundar (only T20s), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravindra Jadeja. Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ajinkya Rahane will be the Test specialists in the line-up.

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India Tour of Australia 2020

India will be touring Australia for a four-match Test series that gets underway on December 3. The first Test will be played at the Gabba in Brisbane.  The second Test match at the Adelaide Oval will be a Day-Night affair while the last two matches will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney Cricket Ground respectively.

The schedule confirms India's tour of Australia for a three-match T20 series in October and the four-match test series in December-January. The second test of the series between December 11 and December 15 is set to be a Day/Night Test at the Adelaide Oval. The Test series will be followed by a three-match ODI series as well. 

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