Former chief selector of BCCI, MSK Prasad feels that India should take a bigger team in their upcoming tour to Australia. He said that this will allow them with plenty of options while playing. It will also help them to experiment with the players throughout the entire tour.

After having won the test series in Australia last year for the first time under Virat Kohli, the expectations will be high from this Indian team. However, last time they didn't have to face two of the best Aussie players - Davi Warner and Steve Smith who was serving the ban for the infamous ball-tampering scandal. But this time, they will be featured and it is going to be tough for team India.

He said, “The team management and seniors will have an opportunity to look at the youngsters who are knocking the doors, In this process, you can also monitor those players who can be the potential guys for different spots in the future.”

Prasad further added, “Since we cannot trust the net bowlers about their exposure to COVID, it would be ideal to go with a large contingent as we can be assured of all the players’ safety as they will be in a bio-secure environment.”

Moreover, the Indian squad will have to spend the mandatory 14-day quarantine period after reaching Australia. Therefore, Prasad feels that having a bigger team will be helpful if in case they need to replace a COVID positive player, they can do it immediately.

He added, “In case someone tests COVID positive, then the players from this contingent can be picked. The infected ones would have to serve the mandatory quarantine period. To add to that, a left-armer’s (Khaleel Ahmed) presence will help in preparing for Mitchell Starc’s angled deliveries.”

His chosen players:

Openers: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul.

Middle-order: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer;

Wicket-keepers: Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha.

Spinners: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav, All-rounder: Hardik Pandya Pacers: Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur.

For white ball: Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya.