The senior India men's selection panel will be meeting in the coming days to finalise the squads across formats for the upcoming tour of Australia. 

In white-ball cricket, it is understood, the main focus will be on identifying strong middle-order options who can bat in different circumstances and finish-off the innings. 

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The middle-order is an area the selectors and the team management want to sort out keeping in mind the two back to back T20 World Cups and the 2023 ODI World Cup coming up. 

Performances in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in UAE will be carefully examined and can be given extra weightage considering there is no List A domestic cricket going on at the moment. 

While skipper Virat Kohli, his deputy Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul are absolute certainties, Shreyas Iyer, who has shown excellent form in the last one year, and Manish Pandey are also expected to be around. 

However, a report by Times of India states, "the selectors are looking for a backup for Iyer and Pandey", which is why "Suryakumar Yadav is well-placed to get his maiden call-up."

Even former chief selector MSK Prasad believes trying Suryakumar wouldn't be such a bad idea. 

"Surya has been performing consistently for the last three years. Had Rishabh Pant been performing consistently down the order, then a lot of problems would have been solved. But with Rahul grabbing his opportunities as a wicketkeeper, it may open the door for Suryakumar,” Prasad told TOI.

Pant, who was dropped from both ODI and the T20I XI before the pandemic, is likely to remain part of the squad. The inconsistency of Sanju Samson and whether Shubman Gill is to be tested in the middle-order will be discussed. 

“Sanju was played in the last T20I series in New Zealand. He should be given a longer run. But both Sanju and Shubman will have to bat at the top of the order," Prasad thinks. 

Among the all-rounders, if Hardik Pandya continues to not bowl, back-ups like Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar will be picked around the squad. However, it is learnt that Hardik's absence as a bowler for MI is down to workload management upon comeback from back surgery. 

“It may be noted that he bowled very little in the last IPL before the World Cup. It could be that he has been asked to preserve himself or India duties. He could go to Australia as a late middle-order batsman but his bowling adds the edge," a source close to selection matters told TOI. 

“The problem is the likes of Shivam Dube and Vijay Shankar are more of batsmen who can bowl a bit. We, as selectors, had told them to work harder on their seam bowling. But there has not been much improvement on that front," Prasad said. 

India will play three ICC ODI Super League fixtures and three T20Is in Australia. The proposed schedule has those matches in Sydney and Canberra, starting November 27.