New Delhi, Oct. 28 -- Former all-rounder Irfan Pathan predicted India's playing XI for the first T20I of the five-match series against Australia in Canberra and left out the nation's premier spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, for mystery ball tweaker Varun Chakravarthy.

Pathan's final XI resembled the setup India went with during its title-winning run at the Asia Cup last month. Apart from Hardik Pandya, who has been ruled out of the series due to an injury, Pathan stuck with the established batting setup.

He chose vice-captain Shubman Gill and "best T20 batter" Abhishek Sharma as the opening pair. Pathan drafted captain Suryakumar Yadav at number three, followed by Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube.

Instead of opting for a sp...