21 November,2023 04:54 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Suryakumar Yadav (Pic: AFP)
India vs Australia T20 series: Suryakumar Yadav, who will captain India in their five-match T20 series against Australia, is closing in on a major T20 International record to become the fastest batsman to score 2000 runs in the limited overs format. The 33-year-old is 159 runs shy of shattering the record.
Yadav, who will lead a squad with just three members of the team that lost the ICC World Cup 2023 final, has 1841 runs to his name from 50 innings at an average of 46.02 and a strike-rate of 172.70 with three hundreds and 15 fifties to his name. Additionally, if he manages to score 159 or more in the next five T20I matches, he will surpass Virat Kohli to become the fastest Indian batsman to score 2000 T20I runs.
India went into Sunday's World Cup final in front of nearly 100,000 fans in Ahmedabad undefeated in the lead-up games of the tournament and favourites to capture the one-day crown. But Rohit Sharma's team was outplayed by Pat Cummins's Australia, suffering a six-wicket defeat and breaking the hearts of millions across the country.
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The 33-year-old, who was just one of three players from the one-day team to be selected for the T20 squad, will captain India for the first time. India and Australia had also faced each other in a three-match series in September ahead of the World Cup, also in India, which the hosts won 2-1.
The T20 series opens Thursday in Visakhapatnam in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, followed by Thiruvananthapuram on November 26 and Guwahati on November 28.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that Shreyas Iyer will join the squad as vice-captain for the last two T20s, in Raipur on December 1 and in Bengaluru on December 5.
Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Capt), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
(With agency inputs)
