Wednesday 27 / November / 2024
Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday announced the squad for the first Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh at home starting this month, with pacers Akash Deep and Yash Dayal included in the team and the latter receiving his first call-up.
The two-match series against Bangladesh will be starting from September 19 onwards, with the first Test taking place in Chennai and the second Test from September 27 onwards in Kanpur.
In the Test series, skipper Rohit Sharma will be leading the team and star batter Virat Kohli will also be featuring, adding to the star power. With a 10-test season ahead of him, Virat will be on a hunt for centuries and milestones, as he would be itching to get to 10,000 test runs and add some more Test tons to his total of 29.
Young top-order batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill are also included in the squad and will be looking to continue their strong Test performances following a series win over England earlier this year.
While KL Rahul makes his return to the Test set-up after missing out on the bulk of the England Test series due to an injury, Shreyas Iyer has not been included in the squad. Star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant will also be making a return to Test cricket after his life-threatening road accident back in 2022-end. Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, two other youngsters who caught eyeballs with some fine performances against England this year, are also in the squad.
The spin quartet of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav will provide the team with a lot of balance given their ability with the bat and ability to dominate the opponents with their spin bowling.
Also, in the pace department, Jasprit Bumrah will be leading the line-up with Mohammed Siraj. Dayal receives his maiden India call-up, while Akash will be looking to add to his solitary Test against England. Akash also took nine wickets across both innings for India A in the recently concluded Duleep Trophy game against India B.
This series against Bangladesh will be followed by New Zealand's tour to India for three Tests starting from October 16 onwards and finally the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia from November 22 onwards.
India sits at the top of the ICC World Test Championship standings with six wins, two losses, and a draw.
Indian squad for first Test against Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, and Yash Dayal.
