The Board of Cricket Control in India has announced an 18 member squad for the first three test matches of the five test match series against England that starts on 1 August.
20 year old, Rishabh Pant has received his maiden test call as a specialist wicket keeper batsmen alongside Dinesh Karthik as Wriddhiman Saha is still injured. However, India’s ODI vice-captain Rohit Sharma is once again ignored by the selectors.
Kuldeep Yadav have impressed the selectors with his chinaman in the ODIs. He is selected for the series alongside India’s senior spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Pacer Mohammad Shami, who was dropped from the one-off game against Afghanistan after failing the YoYo test, has regained full fitness and is back in the test squad.
BCCI said that Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has aggrevated a lower back condition in the 3rd ODI against England and his condition would be assessed to include him in the squad.
Jasprit Bumrah has been included in the Test squad after he missed the T20s and ODIs against England.
India last won a Test Series in England in 2007 under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. In the last two tours, in 2011 and 2014, India lost comprehensively.
India is ranked number 1 while England is number 5 in ICC Test Rankings.
Test squad (for first three matches):
Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur.
TEAM NEWS: #TeamIndia for the first three Tests against England announced #ENGvIND. Bhuvneshwar Kumar aggravated a lower back condition in the 3rd ODI. His condition is being assessed & a call on his inclusion in the Test squad will be made soon. pic.twitter.com/lhlF65VRUP
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 18, 2018