Team India will engage in a limited overs series against Australia, including three ODIs and five T20Is. The ODI series will mark the return of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to the Indian team as well and will also begin the reign of Shubman Gill as the new India ODI captain.

The series will open with the first ODI in Perth on October 19, and former India opener Aakash Chopra has shared his predicted Indian XI for the same and has made some surprising picks.

He has named Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma as the openers, with Virat Kohli at no. 3 and Shreyas Iyer at no. 4 in the batting lineup. This means Chopra hasn’t picked Yashasvi Jaiswal, and he’ll warm the bench.

He has picked KL Rahul as the wicket-keeper over Dhruv Jurel and then chose Nitish Kumar Reddy as the pace bowling all-rounder. He also left out Kuldeep Yadav, instead picking two spin bowling all-rounders in Axar Patel and Washington Sundar to lengthen the batting.

Mohammed Siraj will lead the Indian pace bowling in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami. Aakash Chopra has chosen Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana in place of Prasidh Krishna, the remaining two pacers, giving the Indian team a complete look.

Aakash Chopra’s India XI for the 1st ODI against Australia:

Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh