Even as words about Jasprit Bumrah’s absence from the Test series against Bangladesh were everywhere, he was still surprisingly put on the first Test squad. Rishabh Pant also came back to the Test side after a period of near 20 months without playing as India declared their sixteen-man squad for the opening match on Sunday. The team lost some key players while others made a come-back. However, one more decision made by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee left many people shocked; there is no appointed vice-captain.
In India’s last assignment against England, Jasprit Bumrah was given vice-captaincy. But the selection committee hasn’t done so this time and left fans guessing why?
These days, Bumrah is grouped among other team leaders like K L Rahul or Rishabh Pant or Virat Kohli. Yet, Kohli doesn’t want an official position while Rahul and Pant are competing among themselves for future captaincy roles in Tests for India. Still none of them get selected as a vice-captain designate for the Tests against Bangladesh.
Having missed out on the five-Test series away from home earlier this year, Virat Kohli also made a comeback for having taken a break for his second child’s birth. An uncapped left-arm Uttar Pradesh fast bowler Yash Dayal received his maiden Test call-up while fast bowler Mohammed Shami remains on comeback trail.
Pant had played in the second and final test against Bangladesh at Mirpur from December 22-25, 2022; however, he met with a road accident several days later on December 30 and only made his return to top-flight cricket this year during IPL.
Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had previously stated that right-arm seam bowler was aiming for a comeback from injury by first test match against bangladesh but shami did not make it into test squad even though.
Dayal’s stunning comeback can be attributed to him being smashed for five successive 6’s by Rinku Singh during an Ipl match once upon a time.
After suffering from right quadriceps strain post-first test against England at hyderabad kl rahul returned back into the team once again. He collected 37 runs and also fought like a hero with 57 runs for India A against India B in the recently concluded Duleep Trophy contest held in Bengaluru last Sunday.
Dhruv Jurel, as a wicketkeeper-batter with good performances including winning runs of 90 and 39 not out during the Ranchi Test matches against England, was retained.
Akash Deep, a right arm medium pacer from Bengal who made his test debut for India at Ranchi against England with an excellent spell of three wickets, took nine wickets in the Duleep trophy match for India A against India B at Bengaluru.
India squad for 1st Test vs Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.
