India Vs Australia: Mayank Markande receives maiden India call ahead of World Cup

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee announces the squad for a couple of limited overs series against Australia on Friday. After defeating Australia in their own backyard, India is set to host them for a two T20 and five ODI series, which is scheduled to start on 24^th February at Vishakhapatnam. The ODI series will begin on March 2 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

In the meantime, BCCI has named a few interesting names and dropped a few surprising ones. While, the likes of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, have been called back into the squad, the wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik didn’t make it to the fifty overs team.

This series will be the last assignment for the men-in-blue before the much-anticipated World Cup and they will be hoping to fill a remaining couple of slots in the squad. Though, it seems that the thinking for the T20Is is completely different from the selectors as the leggie Mayank Markande has received his maiden call-up in the national side.

RELATED

The young sensation picked a five-wicket haul in the four-day game against England Lions on Friday and soon after the game was finished, has been picked to play for India. Mayank, who made his domestic circuit debut in 2018 for Punjab has been working regressively with the full fortitude since then. He is known to toss the ball up and give extra flight and eventually gives him the all-important breakthroughs.

In what is a testimony to Mumbai Indians' scouting team, Markande was picked up from nowhere in the 2018 auction for 20 lakhs after he impressed the think tank in the pre-auction trials. He won over the captain's confidence as well in the nets and was thrown into the deep sea straightaway as Mumbai chose to field him in their starting eleven over bigger names. 

Earlier to India call up, Mayank also boarded the flight to Dubai for the preparatory camp of Asia Cup. Mayank was seen having long chats with the former Indian skipper MS Dhoni, who was advising him about his bowling.

In what was a testimony to his talent, he has been named as a part of the India T20 squad in the Quadrangular One-Day series. He has made a solid kick start to his career, ticking most boxes in impressing the experts in the IPL. 

With just a little over a week remaining for the series to start, Mayank must be having the butterflies in his stomach.

It will be interesting to see if Mayank gets a cut ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal in the playing eleven. And if he does, this remains to be seen if he can be as impressive as he has been for Punjab, Mumbai Indians, and India A. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mayank receives a maiden India call up. 
• Dinesh Karthik dropped from India squad. 
• KL Rahul back in the scheme of things.