Desk Report:
India will play a two-match Test series against the West Indies at home next month. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a 15-member squad for the white-clad series with Shubman Gill as the captain, as usual. Ravindra Jadeja has been named as the vice-captain.
Rishabh Pant was Gill’s deputy in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The wicketkeeper-batsman was ruled out of the fourth Test due to an injury. He will not be able to play in the West Indies tour. Therefore, in Pant’s absence, Jadeja has been given the responsibility of the hosts’ vice-captain in the West Indies series. This is the first time he has been co-captained in this edition. Jadeja has previously been seen in this role in ODIs and T20Is.
The biggest surprise is the return of Devdutt Padikkal to the team. This batsman last played in the Australia tour in November last year. He was not in the 5-match Test series against England due to injury. Apart from this, Axar Patel and Nitish Kumar Reddy have been recalled. The batting all-rounder was last in the XI for the Lord’s Test against England in July. He was then ruled out due to injury.
Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh and Shardul Thakur have been left out of the England series squad. Nair was in great form in the domestic league but was a shadow of himself on the England tour. On the other hand, Abhimanyu and Akash have been kept in the Irani Cup squad. Despite rumors, Jasprit Bumrah was not rested for the West Indies tour. Therefore, the pacer will have to return to long-form cricket after the Asia Cup.
The first Test of the series between India and West Indies will begin on October 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The two teams will face each other in the second and final Test of the series on October 10. The venue of the match will be the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
India squad for the Test against West Indies: Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Devdoot Padikkal, Dhruv Zorel (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav and N Jagadeesan.
