New Delhi: Tamil Nadu batsman Murali Vijay has been recalled to the Indian test team for the first two matches against Sri Lanka. Vijay had suffered a wrist injury as a result of which he had to miss India’s last Test series against Sri Lanka two months ago. Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund makes way for the right-hander.
India’s ace off-spinners-Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja continue to be the main spinners in India’s Test setup. The duo didn’t feature in the past few limited overs’ series for India and would be keen to put up a good performance to make a statement. Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav remains India’s third spinner for Tests while all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who had an impressive outing against Sri Lanka two months ago, has been selected to fill in the boots of the fifth bowler.
India’s regular pace bowling attack in Test cricket- Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma return to the team while Wriddhiman Saha, expectedly has been chosen as the wicketkeeper. Ajinkya Rahane has been named as the vice-captain for the series.
Vijay last featured for India in a Test match back in March and since recovering from the wrist injury, he has played one match for his state, Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, one for India Green in the Duleep Trophy and four matches in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.
Ashwin, who had a successful county stint with Worcestershire would be raring to go after missing out on India’s limited overs’ team for the past few series. Both him and Jadeja have formed a potent spin-bowling combination for India in Tests in the past and would look forward to emulate those performances. India’s ODI vice-captain Rohit Sharma misses out on a Test spot.
Youngsters Shreyas Iyer and Mohammad Siraj have been selected for the three-match T20I series against New Zealand next month. Interestingly, Kedar Jadhav has been left out of the T20I team that played against the Australians few weeks ago.
Iyer has earlier been a part of India’s test squad but didn’t get to make his debut. He put up a good performance for India A in recent times with scores of 140*, 65, 108, 82 and 90 against New Zealand A and South Africa A. He has a total of 1289 runs in 53 T20 matches at an average of 26.85 and at a strike rate of 128 with nine fifties.
Mohammad Siraj on the other hand is having a dream year as he had a terrific Ranji Trophy last season where he was the third highest wicket-taker with 41 wickets. He also did well in the Inter-State T20 competition where he ended up with nine wickets and bowled at an economy of 6.57. His impressive performances with the ball bagged him an IPL contract from Sunrisers Hyderabad for whom he picked up 10 wickets.
He was also selected for India A’s tour of South Africa where he again picked up ten wickets and he also featured for India A against New Zealand A recently. The youngster from Hyderabad has played a total of 16 T20s where he has picked 26 wickets at an economy rate of 7.85.
Virat Kohli would lead the side which would have Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav as it’s main spinners. KL Rahul has also been selected in the 15-member squad.
India’s squad vs NZ (T20Is)-
Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj
India’s squad vs Sri Lanka (first two tests)-
Virat Kohli (capt), Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Murali Vijay, Hardik Pandya.