By mid of June it will be decided who will take the trophy home for the World Test Championship. The finals will be held between India & New Zealand starting 18th June. For the same & for the test series against England, BCCI has announced a 20 Men squad & 4 stand by players which takes the total number to 24. The finals will be held in Southampton. That Test will be followed by five Tests against England in August-September. The first Test against England begins on Aug.4 and the final Test is scheduled to end on Sept.14.
With this announcement, Ravindra Jadeja has made a comeback to the team who missed the test series against Australia & England because of an injury. KL Rahul & Wicket Keeper Wriddhiman Saha will also be part of it on the basis of clearance from the fitness division. Inclusion of Jasprit Bumrah has made the bowling line up strong.
India’s squad consists of familiar names with Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill as first-choice openers, and Mayank Agarwal as back-up. KL Rahul’s participation is subjected to fitness clearance. The middle-order consists of Chetershwar Pujara, skipper Virat Kohli, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari, who missed out on the home series against England due to hamstring injury. Rishabh Pant is the first-choice keeper while Saha’s inclusion, like Rahul, is subjected to fitness clearance. In the pace-bowling department, Mohammed Shami returns after a prolonged gap due to injury. Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, and Umesh Yadav complete the pacers arena. Spin attack will involve R. Ashwin, Jadeja & Axar Patel.
Team India has also named four standby players in the form of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna and Arzan Nagwaswalla, and Avesh Khan.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has picked the Indian squad for the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final and the five-match Test series against England,”
the BCCI said in a statement.
“Team India’s first stop will be in Southampton where they play New Zealand to decide the first champion of the Test format”.
India’ Squad: 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