India announce squad for WTC Final and England series

BCCI has announced team India’s squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand and the subsequent five-match Test series against England. There are no surprises in the squad and almost all the players have made it to the line-up that played on the Australia tour. Axar Patel has been retained as well following his excellent performance in the debut series against England at home.

Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur are the six pacers in the squad. T Natarajan has missed out as he is currently injured and was also ruled out of the IPL 2021. Hanuma Vihari and Ravindra Jadeja who were ruled out due to different injuries during the Australia tour and missed the England series have returned as well.

Meanwhile, KL Rahul and Wriddhiman Saha have been named in the squad but they will travel only after clearing the fitness test. Rahul underwent surgery for acute appendicitis only recently while Saha, who is the second choice wicketkeeper of India’s Test side, tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.

Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul (subject to fitness clearance), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper; subject to fitness clearance).

Standby players: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Arzan Nagwaswalla