Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav have been dropped from India’s Test squad for the West Indies series while pace spearhead Mohammed Shami has been rested for the Tests and ODIs in the Caribbean.
Top-order batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad and medium-pacer Mukesh Kumar have earned their maiden call-up for the Test series that marks the beginning of India’s new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
The four-member national selection panel, with interim chief selector Shiv Sundar Das, finalised the squads for the two Tests and three ODIs in the West Indies starting on July 12, during its meeting on Thursday.
T20 team later
Announcing the teams on Friday, BCCI secretary Jay Shah stated that the squad for the five-T20Is in the West Indies in August will be announced “later”, but the statement did not offer any explanation on the changes.
The Hindu understands that the selection committee, in consultation with the team management, decided to “move on” from Pujara and Umesh in the aftermath of India’s second successive WTC final loss.
Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who along with Virat Kohli have consistently been unable to pile on the big runs in the middle order for most of the last three years, had been dropped from India’s squad for the Test series versus Sri Lanka last year.
Since then, not only was Pujara recalled since the one-off Test in England last July but had also been promoted as the vice-captain recently.
Interestingly, Ajinkya Rahane, who marked his return to Tests during the WTC final versus Australia, has been handed over the vice-captaincy again.
Jaiswal and Ruturaj have been earmarked as the next in line in India’s top-three and one of them is set to make his debut in the series-opener on July 12.
Shami, meanwhile, is understood to have been given a break keeping in mind his heavy workload in the last six months and his importance for India’s World Cup campaign in October-November.
Saini included
Navdeep Saini, who had featured in the two ‘Tests’ against Bangladesh-A in November-December and had a decent outing in the Irani Cup against Madhya Pradesh in March, has earned a Test call-up.
The ODI squad has witnessed Sanju Samson benefiting due to K.L. Rahul’s injury.
It will be interesting to see whether Samson is preferred over Ishan Kishan as the primary wicketkeeper.
Meanwhile, the BCCI has floated an advertisement seeking applications for a vacant post in the men’s senior selection committee.
June 30 deadline
The deadline for submitting the application is June 30.
Ever since chief selector Chetan Sharma was forced to resign after being caught in a sting operation, the selection committee has been functioning with four members.
After a prolonged wait and with the World Cup barely three months away, the BCCI has initiated the process to fill up the vacancy.
The squads:
Tests: Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt.), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.S. Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat and Navdeep Saini.
ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Hardik Pandya (vice-capt.), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik and Mukesh Kumar.
The itinerary
Tests: 1st: July 12-16 (Dominica); 2nd: July 20-24 (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad). (Matches start at 7.30 p.m. IST)
ODIs: 1st: July 27 (Barbados), 2nd: July 29 (Barbados), 3rd: August 1 (Tauroba, Trinidad). (matches start at 7 p.m. IST).
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