A day after Indian cricket team's Asia Cup triumph, the squad for the Australia ODI series was announced on Monday. There were several surprises in the squad for the three-ODI series.
The biggest one being the return of Ravichandran Ashwin, who last played an ODI in January, 2022. Another surprise was that the team management rested the star trio - Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya - for a series that is being seen as the final dress rehearsal before the World Cup.
The trio, along with Kuldeep Yadav, has been for the first two ODIs, while they will make a comeback in the third ODI. BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar, who announced the squad, was asked by a journalist about the reason behind resting the stars ahead of 'Bharat Darshan' at the World Cup.
The reference of 'Bharat Darshan' was given because India will be the most-travelled team in the ODI Cricket World Cup as it will be playing all it group stage matches in different cities.