India name 17-member squad for first two Australia Tests; Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav included

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a 17-member squad for the upcoming Test series against Australia on Friday (January 13). Rohit Sharma returns to captain the side after missing the last Test series against Bangladesh due to a thumb injury. India host Australia in the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting on February 9 in Nagpur, followed by three-match ODI series.

In a major change, young wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav are included in India's red-ball team for the first time as Rishabh Pant remains unavailable due to his recent horrific accident.

Star pacer Jasprit Bumrah is missing the squad as he continues to recover from a back stress injury. Jaydev Unadkat, who returned to the Indian setup after ten years during India's tour of Bangladesh, has kept his place in the squad with Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Umesh Yadav being other pace options for the first two Tests.

Ravindra Jadeja is also added in the squad, although his inclusion is subject to fitness. He last played Test cricket in July 2022 and has struggled with a knee injury occurred during the 2022 Asia Cup tournament in UAE. Ravichandran Ashwin will be India's prime spin option in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav keeping their place in the squad.

Kishan, playing for Jharkhand, smashed a hundred against Kerala in the Ranji Trophy 2022-23 match last month. He has scored 2985 runs from 48 first-class matches at a decent average of 38.76 with the help of six hundreds and 16 fifties so far. Meanwhile, Suryakumar continued his red-hot T20 form to domestic cricket for Mumbai with 223 runs from three Ranji Trophy innings at an average of 74.33 this season.

India’s squad for the first two Tests vs Australia:

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav

In another development, India also announced the white-ball squads for New Zealand series at home.

India's ODI squad for New Zealand series: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik

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