Suryakumar to lead India in Australia T20s

MIDDLE order batsman Suryakumar Yadav will captain India when they host World Cup vanquishers Australia in a five-match Twenty20 series starting on Thursday (23) in Andhra Pradesh.

Opener Ruturaj Gaikwad will act as vice captain for the first three matches in the series before top order batter Shreyas Iyer takes over for the last two games in Raipur and Bengaluru.

Suryakumar and Iyer are among four players backing up from the World Cup squad along with wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan and seamer Prasidh Krishna.

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who missed the Asia Cup and World Cup with a quadriceps strain, has been given a chance to make his return to international cricket.

The series starts with matches in Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati in late November before the final two matches in early December.

India lost Sunday's 50-overs World Cup final to the Australians by six wickets in Ahmedabad.

Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (last two matches only)

(Reuters)