Rohit Sharma was the biggest name missing when the squads for India’s tour of Australia were announced on Monday.

Rohit, India’s limited-over vice-captain, has been left out of squads for all three formats due to a recurring hamstring injury.

That should mean that Rohit has been ruled out of the ongoing IPL as well, but his IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians, late on Monday posted a picture of him practising in the nets in the UAE. Anything is possible in the interesting world Indian cricket and so perhaps it would be too early to draw a conclusion on Rohit at the moment.

Rohit’s loss has turned out to be KL Rahul’s gain as the Karnataka player has been appointed captain Virat Kohli’s deputy for ODIs and T20Is. Rahul has made a comeback into the Test squad as well.

Apart from Rohit, the other two major names absent from the squads are fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, both of whom picked up injuries while playing in the current edition of the IPL.

Four additional pacers — T. Natarajan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi and Bengal’s Ishan Porel — will be part of the Indian contingent and will serve as net bowlers.

Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Mohammed Siraj has been named in the Test squad, while Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakravarthy found a place in the T20I squad.

The tour of Australia comprises three T20Is, three ODIs and four Tests. The matches are scheduled to begin from November 27.

Family must

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly backs the view that Indian cricketers should be accompanied by their families for the upcoming tour of Australia.

“They (players) have already been living in a bubble for the last 80 days (away from their families),” Ganguly told Australian daily The Age. “I don’t see a reason why the families won’t be allowed... The Australian cricket Board is trying to accommodate the families. It should be okay.”

The Squads

T20Is: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

ODIs: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur

Tests: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj