The cricket fans need not be disheartened if the India vs Pakistan series does not materialise. India will be touring Down Under to play five ODIs and three T20 internationals against Australia from 12 January.
The squad for both the T20s and the ODIs will be announced on 19 December, Saturday, in New Delhi by the selectors of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The selection committee is headed by former India cricketer Sandeep Patil.
MS Dhoni is likely to resume with his captaincy duties in the limited over formats with Virat Kohli to deputise him.
There might just be a few surprises in the squads for India's tour of Australia. Mohammed Shami is all set to return with his seaming duties in the team and Umesh Yadav is surely going to be another obvious choice keeping in mind the Australian wickets. Varun Aaron and Ishant Sharma will have to wait until the announcement is made on Saturday in New Delhi.
Ravichandran Ashwin will definitely lead the spinning charge. It will be interesting to see if the selectors rope in Ravindra Jadeja for the T20 and the ODI squad against Australia as he came up with a stellar performance in the Test series against South Africa and he has been in the form of his life in the domestic season as well. Amit Mishra will be an option too.
Shreyas Iyer also has been at his sublime best with his willow at the top of the order in the domestic season. He has piled up a lot of runs and might just make it to the ODI/T20 squad for the India tour.
Rohit Sharma has been the most effective batsman in the 50-over format for India in the current year. Shikhar Dhawan is yet another probable choice, even though the Delhi-lad did not have a great ODI or T20 series against South Africa.
Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Kohli are the obvious choice in the middle-order for Team India. Nonetheless, we will have to wait until 19 December to see what the BCCI selectors have in store for us.
