Follow UsThe Indian men’s selection committee has announced the squad for the five-Test match series against England that’s beginning June 20. The biggest news coming from the press conference where the announcement was made was about Shubman Gill’s appointment as the Test skipper to succeed Rohit Sharma. Rishabh Pant has been selected as the vice-captain of the 18-member side.
With the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, there were a few spots open to be picked in the batting order, and the selectors have included Tamil Nadu batter Sai Sudharsan and Vidharbha batter Karun Nair in the side that will travel to England once the Indian Premier League (IPL) season is over. While Nair has featured for India in Test matches before, this is Sudharsan’s maiden Test call-up.
Apart from the two, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and KL Rahul are the other key batters selected in the side. Nitish Reddy, who had a decent maiden Test outing in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, will also travel to England along with Shardul Thakur as India’s designated pace bowling all-rounder. A notable exclusion from the batting order is Sarfaraz Khan, who had recently lost a significant amount of weight to prepare himself for the Test season.
Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar are the two spin-bowling all-rounders, and Kuldeep Yadav is the lone specialist spinner in the squad.
The biggest omission from the side is the pacer Mohammed Shami, whose fitness was under the scanner, and he was ultimately found unfit for the tour. Harshit Rana, who travelled with the India Test squad to Australia recently, is also missing from the list.
Arshdeep Singh’s inclusion also came on expected lines, with the Punjab pacer already having shown his class in country cricket. Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who’s making a comeback after not being picked for the Australia tour, are the specialist pacers in the squad.
The first Test begins on June 20 at the Headingley cricket ground.
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav