Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Hardik Pandya return as India identify squad for first two Tests in opposition to England

Image Source : AP Virat Kohli
After a protracted hole of greater than two years, Hardik Pandya returns to the Indian Test lineup as he has been named within the 18-man squad for the primary two Tests in opposition to England which begins from February 5 onwards in Chennai. 

The squad was named on Tuesday by BCCI’s new choice committee headed by former cricketer Chetan Sharma together with 4 different members – Sunil Joshi, Abey Kuruvilla, Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh who’re presently in Brisbane.

Hardik final performed a Test match for India within the England tour of 2018. Prolonged again accidents have stored him out of the Test squad with captain Virat Kohli clarifying forward of the Border-Gavaskar sequence that he can solely be included when he can bowl as nicely. 

The captain too has been included within the lineup after lacking out on the final three Tests in opposition to Australia owing to paternity go away. Ishant Sharma has additionally been named after lacking the Australia tour owing to BCCI not risking his workload administration.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami, who injured his forearm within the Adelaide Test, Umesh Yadav, who limped off within the second Test with a calf harm, Hanuma Vihari, who pulled his hamstring within the third Test and Ravindra Jadeja, who fractured his thumb within the SCG Test, proceed to get better from their accidents and therefore missed the checklist. 

From the Australian squad, T Natarajan, Navdeep Saini and Prithvi Shaw has been dropped. 

The selectors have additionally named 4 stand-byes – KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Abhimanya Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar – who will probably be launched into the squad if the first-choice gamers incur accidents and miss out on the sequence. The squad additionally has 5 web bowlers as nicely. 

Main squad:

Openers: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal

Middle-order: Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul (topic to health after first Test)

Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur

Spinners: R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel

Standbyes: KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Abhimanya Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar

Net bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Ok Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar