Why India's decision to unveil squad for Australia Tests before conclusion of New Zealand series doesn’t look good

Mere hours after India suffered a 113-run defeat at the hands of New Zealand on Day 3 of the second Test in Pune, BCCI unveiled the squad for the marquee five-Test series in Australia that gets underway nearly a month from now. The reality of India’s 12-year winning streak at home finally coming to an end at the hands of a team that had just been whitewashed in Sri Lanka was yet to sink in for many an expert and fan. And things would only get worse for Indian cricket from thereon.

Just a few hours later on Saturday, followers of Team India were presented with a new reality, that of the Indian team traveling to Australia without Mohammed Shami, whose rehabilitation from an ankle injury hit a roadblock in recent weeks and led to the senior pacer remaining confined to the sidelines for an extended period of time.

There were several other developments with the squad for the Australia tour with the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee also rewarding consistent performers in the domestic circuit with maiden call-ups to Abhimanyu Easwaran, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

While Rana and Reddy have been picked in India’s limited-overs squads with the latter making his debut in the T20I series against Bangladesh recently, Easwaran was finally been rewarded for years of domestic excellence at nearly 30 years of age, having collected 7,638 First-Class runs at an average of 49.92 since making his debut for Bengal against Uttar Pradesh in 2013.

Additionally, pacer Akash Deep had been retained in the squad after a largely impressive run since making his Test debut against England in Ranchi earlier this year, and was the likely candidate to form a three-pronged pace attack alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in Shami’s absence.

Prasidh Krishna had recently made his long-awaited comeback from a quadriceps surgery in the Duleep Trophy and the Irani Trophy as well as Karnataka’s opening game of the ongoing Ranji Trophy against Madhya Pradesh, and the selectors opted to include him as one of the pace back-up options alongside Rana.

Did the BCCI announce squad for Australia tour too early?

As for the batting unit, there weren’t many sweeping changes despite the team suffering collapses of epic proportions in the first two Tests against New Zealand in Bengaluru and Pune as well as the opening Test against Bangladesh in Chennai.

Easwaran had been included in the squad alright, signaling that he is very much in the selectors’ radar at the moment. And a Test debut wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon unless skipper Rohit decided to call it a day in the format, or his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal or No 3 batter Shubman Gill suffered an injury.

However, the events of the third and final Test against New Zealand in Mumbai, in which the Kiwis completed an unprecedented 3-0 triumph despite the hosts collecting a 28-run first innings lead, has resulted in alarm bells ringing at the BCCI headquarters.

The manner in which the hosts were swept aside by a team that had not won a Test in this part of the world in 36 years certainly will not be taken lightly by the board and there will be some serious discussions with captain Rohit and head coach Gautam Gambhir in the coming days.

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The batting order was expected to be largely the same for the Test series against Australia that gets underway on 22 November at the Optus Stadium in Perth, with perhaps KL Rahul being brought back in the middle order for someone like Sarfaraz Khan.

However, with the entire batting lineup appearing shaky at the moment and none barring Rishabh Pant being able to challenge the Kiwi attack on a consistent basis in the just-concluded series, the batting unit perhaps needs an overhaul now more than ever.

And the solution for India’s batting woes could have come from India A’s ongoing tour of Australia, with the Ruturaj Gaikwad fought back impressively in the second half of the match, even if that didn’t stop them from suffering a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of the Nathan McSweeney-led hosts.

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B Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal dished out solid performances in the second innings, scoring 103 and 88 respectively at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay. Had the squad not been announced five days before the first of two unofficial Tests the Indian and Australian ‘A’ teams got underway, those performances might well have been among the key talking points during selection meetings for what is one of India’s biggest Test assignments in recent years.

As would Mukesh Kumar’s impressive 6/46 that helped the Indians bowl Australia A out for 195 in the first innings that gave Gaikwad and Co a fighting chance at pulling off a victory.

However, by announcing the squad for the upcoming Test series Down Under for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy right after the conclusion of the Pune Test, the BCCI inadvertently played down the importance of the third Test against the Tom Latham’s Black Caps, who will have acquired legendary status after their incredible triumph, as well as the first India A-Australia A Test.

Even if the Australia-bound squad was set in stone ahead of the Mumbai Test, it would have perhaps been better for the board to announce it after the conclusion of the current series.

The way things unfolded at the Wankhede Stadium over the weekend, plenty of questions are being asked of the Australia-bound squad, with quite a few of them expecting a 0-5 whitewash at the hands of the Pat Cummins-led Aussies after a 0-3 sweep at their fortress.

For now, the board has taken some emergency measures such as ensuring KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel reach Australia earlier than the rest of the squad and play the second unofficial Test against Australia A, perhaps auditioning for a spot in the middle order.

Even if they do end up solidifying the middle-order in the upcoming series, questions will still be asked of the top-order, which appeared the weakest link in the New Zealand Test series. As well as the bowling unit and their ability to take 20 wickets, which was one of the key reasons behind their triumphs in 2018 and 2021.