Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested : MSK Prasad

India’s squad for the home series against Australia has been announced yesterday. And once again the spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s names were missing from the list. Both the spinners were rested for the tour of Sri Lanka earlier last month. And the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal made a case for themselves by playing in the limited overs series.

Veteran Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina once again failed to make the cut. Yuvraj last played in the series against West Indies and was not able to score many runs through out the away tour. Raina last played for India in January and has been missing from the squad since then.

The chairman of Selector clears the air

“The team for the three ODIs against Australia has been selected in line with the rotation policy of the Board and accordingly R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested. The team’s performance during the Sri Lanka tour was outstanding and players like Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal, who performed very well are being given an extended run and this will, in turn, supplement our approach, to build a strong reserve strength, as we prepare for forthcoming tours,”Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said.

Fitness is one area where the coach and the captain of the Indian team have stressed hard over the last two years.

“Yuvraj’s fitness standards have fallen drastically and coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli have time and again indicated that a certain fitness standard is a must to make the cut in the national team. The selectors want to look ahead and so does the team management,” a BCCI official told PTI.

One of the BCCI official said that “On an average, the Australian cricketers score 21 in Yo-Yo test. Here Virat, Ravindra Jadeja, Manish Pandey regularly hit that score while others are either touching 19.5 or is hitting above that score,” a BCCI official told TOI.