Yuzvendra Chahal posted a cryptic tweet following the announcement of the Indian T20I squad for the five-match series against Australia.

India’s five-match T20I series against Australia starts on November 23 in Visakhapatnam. BCCI announced India’s squad for the series on Monday, November 20, a day after India’s crushing defeat at the hands of the same opponent in the World Cup final.

The 16-member Indian squad will be led by Suryakumar Yadav and consists of three frontline spinners, in Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, and Ravi Bishnoi. Yuzvendra Chahal, India’s highest wicket-taker in the shortest format, has not been picked.

Following his snub from the T20I side, Chahal posted a cryptic smiley face emoji on X, formerly Twitter. The emoji was accompanied with no words, and seemed to be a reaction to his omission from the T20I squad.

😊

— Yuzvendra Chahal (@yuzi_chahal) November 20, 2023

Currently sitting on 96 wickets from 80 T20Is, Chahal last appeared in the five-match T20I series in the West Indies in August this year. From five games, he picked five wickets at an economy rate of 9.05.

Overall, 2023 hasn’t been a fruitful year for him in T20Is. From nine games this year, Chahal has picked only nine wickets at an average of 28.1 and an economy rate of 8.72. However, he did have a good IPL season earlier this year, taking 21 wickets from 14 games at 20.6 runs per wicket.

What this means for the future of Chahal in T20Is is unclear. Despite being India’s leading wicket-taker in the format, he has not featured in a single T20 World Cup game for India. In fact, he was ignored for the ODI World Cup squad as well, with India preferring to go in with only one wrist-spinner, Kuldeep Yadav.

With the T20 World Cup coming up in 2024, India seem to prefer Ravi Bishnoi. It may signal the beginning of the end of the road for Chahal, although there has been no official word on it from the selectors or the team management.

BCCI has announced India's squad for the 5-match T20I series against Australia scheduled to start from 23rd November, 2023.

Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the side in the absence of Hardik Pandya.#SuryakumarYadav #India #INDvsAUS #Cricket #T20Is pic.twitter.com/6YGgS1zCqO

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) November 20, 2023

The five T20Is against Australia will be played in Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Raipur, and Bengaluru.

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