IND v AUS 2020: Varun Chakravarthy surprise inclusion in 16-man T20I squad; Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant excluded

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have announced the T20I squad for the upcoming tour of Australia.

The 16-man squad involves a lot of familiar names such as captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain KL Rahul. The Kings XI Punjab skipper assumes the role in the absence of Rohit Sharma, whose availability is unknown after missing the last few IPL games due to injury.

Rishabh Pant, who wasn't been in great form in the IPL, has also been excluded, with Sanju Samson surviving a lean run of form of late to get another call-up. Mayank Agarwal, who has been in excellent form at the top of the order for KXIP, is also part of the team.

The pace battery consists of Royal Challengers Bangalore spearhead Navdeep Saini and Chennai Super Kings swing bowler Deepak Chahar, among others. Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal also find places after their exceptional performances for Kohli's men in IPL 2020.

But the biggest surprise in the squad is mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who has cemented his place in the Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI. The Tamil Nadu man recently picked up the first 5-wicket haul in IPL 2020, and has been rewarded for his efforts both in domestic T20 cricket and in India's premier T20 tournament.

T20I squad: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (VC & wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy