Nearly 21 months since he last played a Test match, Rishabh Pant is set to don the big gloves for India in whites again in the two-Test home series against Bangladesh this month. The national selection committee picked a full-strength team for the first Test, beginning Sept 19 in Chennai, after having missed some senior players during the series at home against England earlier this year.
Axar Patel, who was benched midway during the England series, makes a comeback. KL Rahul too comes back after getting injured after the first Test against England.
Interestingly, the selectors decided to include Jasprit Bumrah in the squad. They have been looking to groom a pool of fast bowlers after Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj. This approach has led them to pick left-arm pacer Yash Dayal in the team.
There were doubts whether Bumrah would be included for this series or not as the team management wanted to keep him fresh for the marquee five-Test series in Australia from Nov. Since Shami has not been declared fit yet, the selectors opted to go with Bumrah’s experience. However, sources said that Bumrah’s workload will be monitored and a call on how many matches he plays in the five-Test home season before the Australia tour will be taken accordingly. The Indian cricket board (BCCI) expects Shami to be fit for the three-Test series against New Zealand in Oct.
It is also learnt that the selectors and team management have been looking for a left arm seam option. Dayal has pipped Arshdeep Singh and Khaleel Ahmed to the spot after an impressive Duleep Trophy outing this week. “Khaleel has been made to play red-ball cricket regularly since last season. The team management was keen on Arshdeep too but he hasn’t played much red-ball cricket in the past couple of years. Dayal has been consistent in domestic cricket. But the selectors didn’t want to throw young fast bowlers in the deep end. The idea is to give young pacers exposure,” a BCCI source said. Interestingly, the selectors have not announced a vice-captain for the series. It is learnt that even though Gill has been given the responsibility in the other two formats, he needs to prove his consistency in Test cricket.
Squad for the 1st test: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.
Series schedule: First Test Sept 19-23 in Chennai; Second Test Sept 27-Oct 1 in Kanpur.
