New faces likely in ODI squad for Australia tour

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PACEMAN RETURNS: Now that he has recovered from an injury, speedster Mohammed Shami should be back in the squad for the tour of Australia next month.

The National selectors will need to experiment with an eye on the future when they meet in Delhi on Saturday to pick the Indian team for the tour to Australia early next year. India is scheduled to play five ODIs and three T20 matches from January 12 to 31.

Two separate teams are to be picked with the focus obviously on the World T20 in India next year.

In the recently-concluded series against South Africa, India lost both the T20 matches and the ODI series 2-3 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India tried 14 players in the ODI series and 12 in the T20 games.

Automatic choice

Some players — Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Stuart Binny, Ambati Rayudu — pick themselves for the one-day series.

The fit-again Mohammed Shami would also strengthen the fast bowling department.

Mohit Sharma, who had moderate success against South Africa, is nursing an injury, while Axar Patel is expected to yield his place to Jadeja, who seems to be doing nothing wrong in his comeback phase.

Suresh Raina, considered a one-day specialist after a modest Test career, would find it hard to make it following his dismal show against South Africa when he aggregated a mere 68 runs in five innings. He, however, is a certainty for the T20 games.

Punjab all-rounder Gurkeerat Mann is considered the go-to man in both the formats even as his Punjab teammates Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh stay in the reckoning.

Yuvraj, the team management believes, can be an asset in the T20 format where India has struggled to find a suitable man for the No 6 and No 7 slot.

M. Vijay’s performance in Australia — albeit in Test cricket — demands that he be at least discussed.

Five seamers in the mix

Ideally, five seamers should form the squad, given the nature of the pitches in Australia where true bounce add to the intensity of the contest apart from the awesome overall strength the home team commands.

Sreenath Arvind, 31, was a new face in the T20 match at Dharamshala but he proved expensive against the rampaging South Africans, who spared none.

The selectors would be tempted to look at new ball bowlers like Brainder Sran, Jasprit Bhumra, Rush Kalaria, Dhawal Kulkarni and Rishi Dhawan.

Sran impresses

The 23-year-old left-armer Sran made an impression on the Indian team management when he bowled in the nets at Mohali prior to the first Test against South Africa last month.

Ishant Sharma should find his way into the ODI squad while seamer Ashish Nehra and Gujarat all-rounder Hardik Pandya can back themselves along with in-form Maharashtra batsman Kedar Jadhav, a prolific score in the on-going Vijay Hazare tournament.

Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal are likely to be discussed and could find a slot in formats that suit their style.

Mayank was the top-scorer with 409 runs in the Unmukt Chand-led team that won the Triangular Series involving Australia and South Africa.