Pujara dropped; Jaiswal and Gaikwad in India’s Test squad for West Indies
Ajinkya Rahane, who was India’s highest scorer at The Oval, has stored his place after making a comeback following a 15-month absence from the Test group. He has additionally been named vice-captain. The remainder of the squad, led by Rohit Sharma, consists of a lot of the gamers chosen for the WTC last.
Jaiswal had made the journey to London as a stand-by participant together with Mukesh, after Gaikwad, who was a part of the unique record of back-ups, withdrew to get married. While Jaiswal and Mukesh are uncapped, Gaikwad has performed ten limited-overs internationals; his most-recent an ODI in opposition to South Africa in October final 12 months.
Gaikwad, who performs for Maharashtra, has a first-class common of 42.19 from 28 video games with six centuries, and his method has impressed the selectors and group administration who’ve been seeking to convey him into the Test group for some time now.
Jaiswal has been prolific for Mumbai and has a first-class common of 80.21 in 26 innings. In his most up-to-date first-class sport – the Irani Cup – he made 213 and 144 for Rest of India in opposition to Madhya Pradesh. That combination of 357 is essentially the most for any batter in an Irani Cup sport. Jaiswal has the power to not simply open but additionally bat at No. 3 if required.
Mukesh is a workhorse who performs for Bengal. The 30-year-old is a line-and-length quick bowler who has constructed a powerful physique of labor in home cricket. He was key to Bengal making two Ranji Trophy finals within the final three seasons and has been on the Test radar for some time, having featured in each India A tour over the previous two seasons. He has 149 wickets in 39 first-class video games.
Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are all nonetheless recovering from surgery for varied accidents, and with Rishabh Pant present process rehab after surviving a automobile crash final December, KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan have been picked as India’s wicketkeepers within the Caribbean. Bharat has performed all 5 Tests since Pant’s damage, however has scored simply 129 runs at a mean of 18.42.
On the spin-bowling entrance, Axar Patel gives again as much as R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Jaydev Unadkat, who has been a part of each Test squad for the reason that tour of Bangladesh final December, was additionally retained and is the one left-arm seamer in a quick bowling group that additionally consists of Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Saini and Mukesh, all of whom have fewer than 100 Test wickets every. Saini has not performed a Test for the reason that famous victory at the Gabba in 2021.
India open their tour of the West Indies with the primary Test in Dominica from July 12. The second Test begins on July 20 at Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. They received their earlier Test sequence within the Caribbean 2-0 in 2019.
India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk), Navdeep Saini