Sarfaraz Khan has been once again ignored for a place in the Test team for the last two matches against Australia while the selection committee has retained KL Rahul in the 17-member squad. Sarfaraz has been piling on runs in domestic cricket and also made it to the India A squad in 2022. But a packed middle-order once again saw Sarfaraz miss out on a place in the squad.
Rahul, who has been retained in the team, has been struggling for runs in Test cricket since the start of 2022. He pipped Shubman Gill for a place in the playing XI for the first two Test matches but managed scores of 20, 17 and 1 across three innings.
He got captain Rohit Sharma‘s backing after the 2nd Test match and has retained his spot for the last two Test matches of the series. His inclusion in the squad could see Shubman Gill staying on the bench once again. The in-form batsman last played a Test match against Bangladesh in December 2022.
There are no changes in the squad for the rest of the fixtures. Interestingly, the BCCI hasn’t named a vice-captain for the last two matches. This does mean that the BCCI has sacked KL Rahul but the selectors surprisingly haven’t named Rohit’s deputy.
R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will continue to spearhead the spin department and will be assisted by Axar Patel. Kuldeep Yadav, who is the fourth spinner in the team, hasn’t played a Test in the series thus far.
Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami are four pacers in the squad. Umesh and Unadkat stayed on the bench in the first two matches. Unadkat was released to play the Ranji Trophy final during the Delhi Test.
The last two Test matches of the series will be played in Indore and Ahmedabad from March 1 and 9, respectively. After the Test series, the two teams will also square off in a three-match ODI series.
Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), K L Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
