Ajinkya Rahane taking over as captain. Virat Kohli has been rested for the first Test against New Zealand home series. Hanuma Vihari, who had played vital role in Test Series win against Australia in Australia has been left out of the Test series against New Zealand at home.
Hanuma Vihari will travel to South Africa with the India ‘A’ team to gather game time. Vihari was left out of India’s ‘A’ squad released earlier this week, but will now utilise the three four-day games in South Africa to get used to the conditions. In mid-December, India will play South Africa in a three-match Test series.
Vihari was a member of the Test team earlier this year in England but did not play any test there.
Ajinkya Rahane has been selected captain for the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur (November 25 to 29). Rahane will lead a team that will be without Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Shami, who are all expected to be rested.
In a statement released on Friday, the BCCI gave no explanation for the absence, but stated that Kohli would lead the team in the second Test, which will be held in Mumbai from December 3 to 7.
Shreyas Iyer has been chosen ahead of Vihari for the Tests against New Zealand, but he is unlikely to make the starting XI. But, if the opportunity arises in South Africa, it will be interesting to see if the squad still favours Iyer to Vihari.
Iyer has yet to play in a Test match, but he has a history of producing stroke-filled innings in white-ball cricket. KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Mayank Agarwal are the three openers for the home series.
With Pant rested, Wriddhiman Saha will be the first choice, with Andhra’s KS Bharat, who has considerable of First-Class experience and recently batted up the order for Royal Challengers Bangalore, as his backup.
In the absence of Bumrah and Shami, medium pacer Prasidh Krishna from Karnataka has also been called up to the Indian Test squad.
Jayant Yadav, a Haryana off-spinner who can also bat, has been recalled to the Test team, which also contains R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the spin department.
India’s Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (c), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara (vc), Shubman Gill, S Iyer, Wriddiman Saha (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, J Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohd Siraj and Prasidh Krishna.