India vs England: Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Hardik Pandya back as BCCI announce Indian squad for first two Tests


India vs England: Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Hardik Pandya back as BCCI announce Indian squad for first two Tests
The victorious Indian team who clinched victory today

Just hours after India’s historic win against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the focus of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shifted to the next series against England which will begin with Tests. The first two Tests will be held in Chennai and the final two in the four-match series will be in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad will also host all five ODIs while Pune will host all three T20Is.

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Today, the BCCI’s newly appointed selection committee led by Chetan Sharma met and were according to earlier reports would have been joined by Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli via video-conferencing to discuss the issues of injuries and pick the squads for the first two Tests in Chennai alone.

Axar Patel called up in absence of Ravindra Jadeja; T Natarajan misses out

Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja

Familiar names who were injured and unable to take full part in the series against Australia returned to the squad. The likes of Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Ishant Sharma returned. Heroes from Australia, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj and Washington Sundar kept their places. T Natarajan missed out however. The out-of-form Prithvi Shaw didn’t find a place as well.

The important question was with regard to Ravindra Jadeja’s injury and who his replacement would be, before the announcement of the squads. Axar Patel has now been named in the squad as a like-for-like replacement. Similarly, the injured Hanuma Vihari and Mohammed Shami haven’t found a place in the squad.

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The BCCI has also named five net bowlers and five standby players for the series. The net bowlers are Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham and Saurabh Kumar while the standbys are KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar and Priyank Panchal.

The squad

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel

Also Read: World Test Championship – Latest standings and scenarios for India to qualify for the final