Yuzvendra Chahal posted a cryptic tweet following the announcement of the Indian T20I squad for the five-match series against Australia.
The five-match T20I series between India and Australia will begin on November 23 in Visakhapatnam. The BCCI announced India’s squad for the series on Monday, November 20, a day after India suffered a crushing defeat against the same opponents in the World Cup final.
The 16-member Indian team is led by Suryakumar Yadav and consists of three front spinners – Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi. Yuzvendra Chahal, India’s top wicket-taker in the shortest format, was not selected.
After being snubbed from T20I, Chahal posted a cryptic smiley emoji on X (formerly Twitter). The emoji was not accompanied by words and appeared to be a reaction to his departure from the T20I team.
😊
– Yuzvendra Chahal (@yuzi_chahal) 20. November 2023
Chahal currently has 96 wickets from 80 T20Is, with his last appearance coming in the five-match T20I series in West Indies in August this year. In 5 matches, he picked 5 wickets at an economy rate of 9.05.
Overall, 2023 was not a successful year for him in T20Is. In nine matches this year, Chahal has picked just nine wickets at an average of 28.1 and an economy rate of 8.72. However, he had a good IPL season earlier this year, in 14 matches he took 21 of his wickets and scored his 20.6 runs per wicket.
What this means for Chahal’s future in T20Is is unclear. Despite being India’s leading wicket-taker in this format, he has never played a T20 World Cup match for India. In fact, he was even ignored by the ODI World Cup squad as India preferred to field only wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
With the T20 World Cup looming in 2024, India seems to have a soft spot for Ravi Bishnoi. Although there was no official statement from the selectors or team management, this could be the beginning of the end for Chahal.
BCCI has announced India’s squad for the 5-match T20I series against Australia scheduled to start from 23rd November, 2023.
Surrakumar Yadav wird die Mannschaft in Abwesenheit von Hardik Pandya anführen.#SurrakumarYadav < a href ="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#インド #INDvsAUS #Cricket #T20Is pic.twitter.com/6YGgS1zCqO a>
– Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) 20. November 2023
The five T20Is against Australia will be held in Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Raipur and Bangalore.
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