The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named the squad for the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar series, starting on November 22. Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav were the major absentees from the 18-member squad that the Indian Board named on Friday, October 25.
India will be sending a strong team for the five-match Test series. While the core group remains mostly intact, the Indian Board has given opportunities to a few new names.
Three uncapped Test players – opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, speedster Harshit Rana and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy have been named in the squad. Easwaran has impressed the selectors with his consistent performances in the domestic circuit, where he has scored over 7500 runs at an average of just under 50.
Easwaran recently slammed four centuries in four consecutive first-class games and has been rewarded with a place in the team. However, this is not his maiden call-up as he was part of the Test squad for the Bangladesh Tests in 2022. Easwaran is in line for his first Test cap now.
Harshit and Nitish are the only two players who have been called into the Indian Test team for the first time. Nitish has played three T20Is against Bangladesh recently but has not played in the other two formats. The SRH rising star Nitish made 90 in those three games, including a 74. He has three wickets too.
Meanwhile, Harshit Rana was also part of the T20I squad against Bangladesh but did not get a game to play. He is uncapped across all three formats.
Coming back to the squad, senior pacer Shami is out as he continues to recover from ankle surgery. Kuldeep Yadav is also not named in the squad. The Indian Board provided update on Kuldeep but not on Shami.
“Note: Kuldeep Yadav was unavailable for selection for the tour of Australia since he has been referred to the BCCI Centre of Excellence after the end of the ongoing Test series against New Zealand for long term resolution of his chronic left groin issue,” BCCI wrote while naming India’s Test squad for BGT.
India’s squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed