Ravindra Jadeja made his much-awaited return to the national squad while Hardik Pandya was dropped as the Chetan Sharma-headed selection panel named a jumbo squad for the World Test Championship final, against New Zealand, and the five-match Test series against England.
Jadeja, who was ruled out of the Australia tour after the 3rd Test, had also missed the complete home series against England. He recovered from the thumb injury before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and returned to action for Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Jadeja played a key role in CSK’s dominant run in IPL 2021. He scored 131 runs, at a strike-rate of 161.72 and scalped 6 wickets.
Pandya, who has lost his place in the Test team, was recalled for the home fixtures against England earlier in the year. The 27-year-old has mostly played as a specialist batsman since his comeback to international cricket and didn’t bowl a single over in IPL, which could be one of the reasons behind his absence. Pandya hasn’t played Test cricket since 2018.
Hanuma Vihari, who was also ruled out during the Australia series, has made his comeback. The right-handed batsman is playing county cricket for Warwickshire and is already in England.
There was no place for Prithvi Shaw in the squad. The young opener has been in form after being dropped from the Test squad but with number of openers available, the selectors ignored him.
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal are three openers in the squad. Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane complete the middle-order while Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel are three all-rounders in the squad. R Ashwin, who will lead the spin attack, can also make handy contributions with the bat.
Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah will lead the pace attack, which includes Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav.
Rishabh Pant is the sole wicketkeeper in the squad. Wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha and KL Rahul will only travel to England if they recover in time.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Arzan Nagwaswalla have been named standbys for the series.
The WTC final will be played from June 18 to 22 in Southampton while India play England in a five-match Test series in August-September.
Squad: Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav
