Consistent performers Mayank Agarwal and Mohammed Siraj were rewarded for their perseverance as they were selected for India‘s two-Test series against the West Indies which begins on October 4.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan was dropped from the team that lost the England Test series 4-1. He played four Tests in England with a top-score of 44. His place will most likely be taken up by young opener Prithvi Shaw or Agarwal against the Windies when the first Test starts in Rajkot, with KL Rahul as the other opener. Agarwal was in superb form for his state Karnataka last season, scoring more than 2,000 runs in the domestic circuit.
India rested fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah owing to their heavy workloads. Bumrah played the England Tests and then the Asia Cup while Bhuvneshwar is easing back after a back injury. Fast bowler Ishant Sharma failed to recover from an ankle injury while Hardik Pandya’s stress fracture in the back hasn’t healed as yet.
Young fast bowler Siraj has been rewarded for a great run of form, having picked up 40 wickets in nine first-class matches. There were reports of the Indian management being worried about a mysterious wrist injury to Kohli but didn’t mention it while announcing the team on Saturday.
India Test squad:
Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur
