BCCI announces India squad for last two Tests against England

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced India’s squad for the last two Tests against England. The selectors haven’t made major changes to the team that played the first couple of matches. But the ace pacer Mohammed Shami hasn’t been included. Reports had earlier surfaced that Shami and Navdeep Saini were recovering well and could be available for the Pink Ball Test.

But India will have to make do without them only now and shouldn’t lose any of the two Tests but win one of them to make it to the final of the World Test Championship. The only major change is Shardul Thakur being released from the main squad to play for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Umesh Yadav will replace him and join the team in Ahmedabad after his fitness assessment.

KS Bharat and Rahul Chahar are among the standby players and will be with the team for the last two Test matches. Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham, and Saurabh Kumar are among the net bowlers. Meanwhile, the other standby players Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Priyank Panchal have also been released to feature in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Here’s India squad for the last two Tests against England:

Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Md. Siraj, Umesh Yadav (will join the squad after fitness assessment)

Standby players – KS Bharat, Rahul Chahar

Net Bowlers – Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham, and Saurabh Kumar

Series levelled at 1-1 after two Tests

The four-match Test series is currently levelled at 1-1. After England won the opening Test by 227 runs, the hosts made a stunning comeback to level the series as they won the second Test by a mammoth 317 runs. The third Test will be played with Pink ball under the lights from February 24 and the last of the four-match series will also take place at the same venue.

50% of spectators will also be allowed at the Moteral Stadium and the tickets are already sold out. As many as 50,ooo thousand fans will cheer for the home team during India’s only second day-night Test at home.