Nikhil Chaudhary Added to Australia Squad, Closing on 60-Year First
Nikhil Chaudhary was added to Australia’s T20I squad for the Bangladesh series, and the call-up puts him in line to become the first Indian-born man to play for Australia in more than 60 years. The 30-year-old Hobart Hurricanes allrounder is due to link up with the white-ball group in Dhaka on Friday.
If Chaudhary gets on the field in Chattogram next week, he will end a gap that stretches back to Rex Sellars, the Gujarat-born leg-spinner who appeared in the 1964 Calcutta Test. Australia has not had an Indian-born man in the national side since then.
Chaudhary’s route to Dhaka
Chaudhary’s rise has been built in Australia. He played 14 limited-overs games for Punjab, trained with Australia’s white-ball group before they left for Pakistan last month, and built his case in the Big Bash League, where he scored 307 runs at 30.70 with a strike-rate of 153 last summer.
He also earned a maiden state contract with Tasmania after a debut Sheffield Shield season that brought a five-wicket haul against Queensland in October and a century against NSW in November. Hobart later won the BBL|14 title with him in the side.
Dodemaide on selection
Tony Dodemaide said the panel had been impressed by Chaudhary’s BBL form, particularly last season, leading to his addition to the squad. He also said: “Nikhil will gain invaluable experience in Bangladesh and will be in contention to play his first game for Australia when we sit down to pick a team for the opening T20 fixture here next week.”
The selection gives Australia another option after Travis Head was granted personal leave following his initial inclusion in both limited-overs squads for the Bangladesh tour. Mitch Marsh is out of the ODI series but is hopeful of recovering from an ankle injury to lead the T20I side.
Punjab links and Australia
Chaudhary’s cricket path also runs through Punjab, where he played alongside Harbhajan Singh, Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma, and through a brief trial with Mumbai Indians. His move to Australia came after he was visiting an uncle in Queensland when the pandemic shut international borders, and he later worked in a Mexican restaurant and as a postman while building his career.
He is a permanent resident and not an Australian citizen, which makes the chance to debut for Australia especially unusual in a national setup that has not fielded an Indian-born man since the 1960s. For Bangladesh’s T20I series in Chattogram, the immediate question now sits with the selection meeting next week and whether Chaudhary is named in the XI.
