India announces squad for Australia ODI series; no Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli in first two matches

PTC News Desk: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Hardik Pandya will miss the opening two ODI against Australia. The decision to do so was made with workload management in mind.

The Indian team is fresh off a challenging Asia Cup in which they defeated Sri Lanka in the final by 10 wickets to claim their eighth title.

In the third match of the series, the three players will return to the starting XI. In addition, Ravichandran Ashwin was named to the squad for the Australia series.

KL Rahul will lead the Indian team in the first two ODIs in place of Rohit. The selection of the injured Axar Patel in the third and final ODI will be conditional on his fitness.

On Sunday, Rohit revealed that Axar Patel, who suffered a left quadriceps injury during his team's match against Bangladesh, is also doubtful for the first two ODIs against Australia, which begin on Friday.

As the Indian team for the Australia series is expected to change, Axar is likely to go to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for rehabilitation.

The BCCI said on Saturday that Axar has a strain, putting him out of the Asia Cup final. The scan results, however, appear to have revealed a tear.

“Axar had a small tear. It looks like maybe a week or ten days (to heal), I don’t know. We have to see how that injury progresses. Some guys recover quickly, and I hope that’s the case with him. I am not sure whether he will be able to play the first two games against Australia at home. But we will wait and see,” Rohit had said.