The 34-year-old Cheteshwar Pujara scored 720 runs in five Division two games for Sussex, which included two double hundreds and two hundred, which forced the selection committee to give him a call-up for the ‘fifth’ Test of the last series. The squad doesn’t have any new face from the one that was picked last year.
Prasidh Krishna, who had been drafted into the Test squad during the course of the last series, is back while KS Bharath is now the official second keeper in Tests after 37-year-old Wriddhiman Saha was shown the door earlier this year.
Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will all fly to England on June 15 for the one-off Test against England at Edgbaston from July 1-5 and will be joined by Cheteshwar Pujara, who has earned a recall to the 17-member Indian Test team after a stupendous show in English County Championship for Sussex.
Ditto for all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has successfully led new franchise Gujarat Titans into IPL play-offs and has been consistent with the bat, besides bowling a few overs at brisk pace.
Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari, who have done well for India in the little chances that they got, are there.
India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
India’s T20I squad: KL Rahul (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain)(wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.
