Our Bureau
New Delhi
India’s squad for the England tour has finally been announced after constant talks over the past few weeks regarding the selections. The buzz around who will be selected as the captain of the Indian test team going forward after former captain Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the format followed by the veteran batter and leader Virat Kohli who also ended his red ball career.
Shubman Gill has now been named the captain of the test squad and Rishabh Pant has been named his deputy and chosen as the Vice-captain of the squad. The decision was rumoured for a long while as it was reported that the selectors were looking at the young 25-year-old as the future of Indian cricket and are willing to give him a long rope.
The biggest takeaway from the squad announcement was Jasprit Bumrah not being named as the Indian captain. Ajit Agarkar, the Chief selector, stated that Bumrah will not be playing all the matches and will only play 3 or 4 games for the team. This can be one of the main reasons behind him not being handed over the reins after Rohit Sharma.
The most notable names that were missing from the squad were Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer and Sarfaraz Khan. Shami who has spearheaded the Indian pace attack for the past decade was omitted from the team as there were concerns around his fitness and recent form. People were also surprised to see Sarfaraz’s name out of the squad as he was part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy’s squad.
The 18-man squad was selected keeping in mind domestic excellence and performances as well. This can be seen in the selection of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shardul Thakur and Karun Nair. Although Easwaran was part of the last squad he didn’t get any playing time and was not seen as an obvious choice for the squad. Thakur and Nair are both veteran players who will be making their return to the national side after a long time.
Arshdeep Singh and Sai Sudarshan who have been named in the squad can very likely make their debut against the English team as they have shown great promise in their young career so far. Nitish Reddy is also a player that India will be looking forward to as he has impressed many in the last test series against Australia.
Full Squad – Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
