AUS vs IND: 3 Players who are missing from last India’s tour of Australia

Team India are all set to play Australia in their backyard in a multi-format series tour, starting from the 27th of November 2020. The squads of both the teams have been named and owing to the circumstances, the players are self-isolating and preparing for their first international series of matches after a long-long time. While a major part of both teams is same, there are certain players whose names are not present in the list of players announced to play the matches during the course of the tour. Here’s a look at 3 such players who were a part of the 2018-19 tour but are missing from the teams this time around.

3. Murali Vijay (India)

Popularly known as ‘The Monk’ among his fans and teammates, Murali Vijay’s last tour to Australia was kind of a final nail in the coffin for his time in the Indian team. Coming into that tour, Murali Vijay had not had great outings for the Indian team and was expected to redeem himself, opening the batting for the Indian team Down Under. But, it was not too long before he found himself warming the bench. After being able to score just 49 runs in 4 innings across 2 Test matches, he was dropped from the team, never to be picked again. He has been out of the Indian team’s setup for almost two years now and is also not a part of the team on this tour to Australia.

2. Peter Siddle (Australia)

One of the mainstays of the Australian bowling attack in One Day International and Test cricket, Peter Siddle’s presence will be missed in the Australian dressing room in this tour. An excellent craftsman with the ball, who carried himself through the toughest of times, had a decent time playing against India when the team toured Australia in 2018-19. But, as all good things come to an end, Siddle announced his retirement from cricket later in 2019, when he announced his decision on the 29th of December in 2019. During his stay in the Australian dressing room, he played in 89 matches across formats and took 241 wickets, while scoring a total of 1196 runs too.

1. Parthiv Patel (India)

Left-handed wicket-keepers to represent India in International cricket: Parthiv Patel and Rishabh Pant.

Both are part of the Indian squad for the Test series in Australia. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/YFp3eiAcqa

— Pankaj Bishnoi ↗️ (@ImPankajBishnoi) October 26, 2018

On India’s last tour to Australia, alongside Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel also found himself in the team for the last time in recent times. To add to his dismay, he was not included in the playing XI of a single game on that tour and was later dropped from the squad for the 4th Test of the series too. His presence and impact which he could have had on the team by the presence of Rishabh Pant, who had a golden run in that time, and left no gaps in his performance that would have potentially given a chance for Parthiv to sneak into the team. Since that tour, Parthiv hasn’t been included in the Indian team and is hence not a part of the Indian team travelling to Australia on this tour too.