India’s Test squad for NZ series; Rahane to lead

Rohit, Pant, Bumrah and Shami to sit out Test series; Kohli to join squad for second Test and lead the side

Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in the first Test against New Zealand before regular skipper Virat Kohli returns for the second match even as some all-format bigwigs got complete rest from the assignment in line with the BCCI’s workload management of players.
Newly appointed T20 captain and regular opener Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have all been rested from the two matches in Kanpur (November 25 to 29), and Mumbai (December 3 to 7).
Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari and Abhimanyu Easwaran, who were all part of the subsequent Test series, against England, have been left out from the 16-member list, along with Shardul Thakur, who will be out of action from the preceding T20Is as well.
Middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer made a comeback in the Test squad along with off-spinner Jayant Yadav. The Test series will be preceded by a three-match T20 series beginning November 17 in Jaipur. Kohli will not be a part of the T20 series after opting to take a break. It is expected that KL Rahul will open the batting with Mayank Agarwal in Rohit’s absence, while Kohli’s middle-order slot in the first Test could be contested between Shubman Gill and the uncapped Shreyas Iyer, who has been part of the red-ball squad in the past but is yet to make his Test debut.With Pant absent, the experienced Wriddhiman Saha is in line to play his first Test since India’s defeat in Adelaide in December 2020.The Andhra wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat, however, is also part of the squad. Bharat has a solid first-class record behind him: 4283 runs from 78 matches at the average of 37.24, with nine hundreds including a top score of 308 against Goa in February 2015. The uncapped Prasidh Krishna - who was a late addition to the Test squad in England recently, having initially been part of the tour as a reserve player - joins Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj in the pace attack. (Agencies)

India Test squad:

Ajinkya Rahane (Captain first Test), Virat Kohli (Rested for first Test, Captain for second) KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.