Suryakumar Yadav to lead, Sanju Samson dropped as India announce 15-member squad for Australia T20Is

Suryakumar Yadav will lead India men's 16-member squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia. He, left-handed wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, and fast bowler Prasidh Krishna are the only two players from the 2023 World Cup squad to be selected for the series.

Usual T20I skipper and all-rounder Hardik Pandya is absent from the team as he continues to recover from the ankle injury he suffered during the World Cup.

Ruturaj Gaikwad will be Surkumar's deputy for the first three matches. Middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer will join the team for the last two matches and will take over the vice-captaincy duties. The series will start on November 23 in Vishakhapatnam and end on December 3 in Bengaluru.

The team looked similar to the one used for the last T20I series against Ireland. Middle-order batter Sanju Samson and all-rounder Shahbaz Nadeem were dropped despite them not playing any senior internationals since the series.

Shivam Dubey kept his place in the side despite having a middling campaign in the domestic T20 competition the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Suryakumar came into India's playing 11 at the World Cup after Hardik got injured. Slotted as the finisher, he played a couple of decent knocks in the campaign. In the final, though, he found it difficult to counter Australia's pacers on the tacky Ahmedabad wicket and got out for just 18.

Kishan played the first two matches of the competition when Shubman Gill was down with dengue and scored a 47 against Afghanistan. Prasidh was called up to the team as Pandya's squad replacement but didn't get to play.

India's full squad for the T20I series against Australia

Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

​