Injured Rohit, Ishant left out, Pant dropped by India

India have left out the injured duo of opener Rohit Sharma and quick Ishant Sharma from the Test and limited-overs squads for their upcoming tour of Australia, while wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has been dropped from the limited-overs formats.

Ishant has been ruled out of remainder of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) in the United Arab Emirates after suffering an abdominal muscle tear earlier in the tournament.

Rohit, who captains defending champions Mumbai Indians in the Twenty20 competition, has also missed his team's past two IPL matches with a hamstring injury.

"The BCCI medical team will continue to monitor the progress of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma," Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said in a statement.

Limited-overs stalwart Rohit has reinvented himself as a Test opener after featuring in the middle-order on India's last Test series in Australia, and his injury creates uncertainty around who would partner Mayank Agarwal at the top of the batting order in the four-Test series.

India have named Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill in the Test squad and one of them could land the role should Rohit fail to recover.

There was high expectations around Shaw on India's last tour to Australia but the then teenager injured himself attempting a catch on the boundary in India's warm-up match. Now 20, he has since played four Tests and averages 55.83.

Uncapped quick Mohammed Siraj was also named in the 18-member test squad, which contains two wicketkeepers in Wriddhiman Saha and Pant.

Pant, an explosive batsman who became a viral sensation on the 2018-19 tour with his stump mic banter with Australia Test captain Tim Paine and was labelled "another Adam Gilchrist" by Ricky Ponting, was omitted from both India's limited-overs squads where Rahul was preferred.

Four additional bowlers – Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T Natarajan – will accompany the team on the tour.

India are scheduled to play four Test matches in December-January, preceded by three one-day internationals and as many Twenty20 matches, though the exact itinerary is yet to be finalised.

The Virat Kohli-led team, who recorded India's first ever Test series victory in Australia last year, are scheduled to quarantine in Sydney next month. Last week the NSW government approved Cricket Australia's strict biosecurity plans that will allow the Indian squad – and the Australian players returning from the IPL – the train while serving their 14-day quarantine period.

Test squad: Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (w), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj

ODI squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

T20I squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy