The BCCI has announced a 20-man squad for India’s upcoming tour of England with an added 4 players named as standby.
Making a comeback to the Test team is Ravindra Jadeja while Jasprit Bumrah is also back in the squad after requesting for leave during the home series against England to get married. Hanuma Vihari, who got injured during the Test series in Australia, also makes a comeback.
KL Rahul and Wriddhiman Saha too are part of the 20-man squad but their travel to England will be ‘subject to fitness clearance’ with Rahul having been hospitalise with acute appendicitis last week and Saha testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.
The big omissions though are Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya. While the spinner was part of the team that played England on 13 February, Pandya was a member of the Test squad during the England series but did not play a game.
The four month tour will start with the final of the first-ever World Test Championship, against New Zealand, starting 18 June in Southampton. Virat and co will then face England in a five-match Test series starting 4 August.
The series-opener will be played in Nottingham with the second Test at the Lord's from 12 August. 25 August will see the start of the third Test at Leeds and then the Oval and Manchester will host the fourth and the final Tests starting 25 August and 10 September respectively.
Following their 3-1 win against England at home, India finished as the No. 1 side with 72.2 percentage points and booked their place in the WTC final.
India’s Test Squad For WTC Final and England Tests
- 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
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)