News Sports Cricket IND vs AUS, 1st T20I: Gaikwad-Jaiswal to open instead of Ishan? India's probable playing XI against Australia

IND vs AUS, 1st T20I: Gaikwad-Jaiswal to open instead of Ishan? India's probable playing XI against Australia

Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the team in the absence of regular captain Rohit Sharma and will have a selection headache going into the first T20I game in Visakhapatnam. Rutuaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal are likely to top open ahead of Ishan Kishan in the opening game on Thursday.

VVS Laxman and Suryakumar Yadav in Visakhapatnam ahead of 1st T20I on November 21 Image Source : PTIVVS Laxman and Suryakumar Yadav in Visakhapatnam ahead of 1st T20I on November 21

New ODI champions Australia take on the no.1 T20I side India in the first match at Visakhapatnam's Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on Thursday, November 23. Cricket shifts its focus to T20I cricket after the 46-day ODI World Cup 2023 in India and brings a five-match series with T20 World Cup 2024 in mind.

The world no.1 T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the young side in this home series with key and senior figures being given the rest. It will be the first international assignment for Suryakumar as a captain and he faces a selection dilemma going into the first game.

Ishan Kishan is part of the T20I team having played two ODI World Cup matches. But the wicketkeeper batter faces another battle to open the innings with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashavi Jaiswal also in contention. Kishan might don the wicketkeeping gloves ahead of Jitesh Sharma but is likely to start in the no.3 position. 

"Ishan has been doing well, we wanted to keep continuity," Suryakumar Yadav said in the pre-match conference. "He has been doing really well for us, including the Asia Cup and World Cup, batting in different positions. Both of them are front runners. We will take a call tonight."

India predicted XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krisha, Mukesh Kumar, Arshdeep Singh

India T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar, Washington Sundar, Avesh Khan

More to follow...