The BCCI on Saturday issued Team India’s squad for the five-match Test series against England, to begin from June 20. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed star batter Virat Kohli’s unexpected decision to retire from Test cricket.
Kohli made the surprise announcement last month, days after India captain Rohit Sharma also said he would be retiring from Tests. On Saturday, selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar spoke at a press conference before the announcement of India’s team for the Test tour of England coming up.
At the presser, Agarkar informed that Kohli approached the BCCI in early April, having already decided that he wanted to retire from the format. Shubman Gill was appointed India’s new Test captain on Saturday while Rishabh Pant was appointed his deputy.
The selector’s choice for the captaincy of the team was on lines after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Young left-handed batsman B Sai Sudharsan received his first Test call-up. The team also has Karun Nair, who made a comeback to the national setup after seven years. A surprise name left out was pacer Mohammed Shami, who was not considered fit enough for the long series.
“Last year or so we have considered Shubman (for leadership). We hope he is the fellow who is going (to lead the team). It is a big pressure job but he is a great player. We wish him well,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar said after announcing the team.
On Shami, he included: “His workload is not where it has to be. We were expecting him to be available but it is a miss. Right now, he is not fully fit. From the tour of Australia, Harshit Rana and Sarfaraz Khan have been omitted.”.
India Squad: Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhurv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav.
