Australia have made a bold move and named their 13-member squad for the upcoming T20Is against South Africa and India without several of their most experienced stars. Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh and Nathan Lyon have been left out of the squad thus raising several eyebrows. Apart from the trio Peter Siddle who was Starc’s replacement in the recently concluded T20Is against Pakistan has also been omitted. To everyone’s surprise, frontline bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins who are fully fit too have failed to make the 13-man list.

“We have to get the balance right between playing our best T20 team and preparing for the upcoming Test series. While I know all four (Starc, Siddle, Lyon and Marsh) have a desire to be playing cricket for Australia in every format, with a really tough Test series against India coming up, we believe their best preparation is to go back and get some really good cricket under their belts in the Sheffield Shield,” coach Justin Langer said.

Left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis have made a comeback to the squad. Behrendorff caught the selectors eyes with a match-winning performance against South Africa for the Australian Prime Minister’s XI a few days ago. Explosive opening batsman Aaron Finch will lead the side and will look to bounce back after the 3-0 defeat against Pakistan in the UAE.

Australia will take on South Africa in a one-off T20I on Saturday, November 17 at the Carrara Oval following which they will play 3-match series against India which is scheduled to begin in Brisbane from November 21.

Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (wk), Chris Lynn, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Billy Stanlake, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa