England’s cricket team is going to visit India next month. The four-match Test series between the two countries is scheduled to be held during this visit. For this, team India will select the squad for the first two Tests today. The newly appointed Senior National Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India headed by Chetan Sharma is due to meet today. The meeting will be held online at 5 pm this evening.
Besides Chetan Sharma, Sunil Joshi, Debasish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, and Kuruvilla will also be present on the selection committee. Captain Kohli will also be present.
The new selection committee led by Chetan Sharma would not like to change that much, as the fit players on the Australia tour would be entitled to a place in the team. And captain Virat Kohli will also return to the Test team after parental leave.
5 Indian Players Unavailable
Before the team selection for the first two Tests, it is reported that five players will not be available for selection for the first two clashes with England due to injury. These players are Mohammad Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, and Hanuman Vihari. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be bidding for selection with Pacer Ishant Sharma, who performed well in Syed Mushtaq Ali, while he was recovering from the injury.
With Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj, Ishant will lead the Indian fast attack while Shardul Thakur and T Natarajan will be reserve fast bowlers. In the spin department, Jadeja could be replaced by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who has played a Test match against South Africa in 2019. Kuldeep Yadav will be the reserve wrist spinner in the squad after a brilliant performance by Washington Sundar. Rishabh Pant and Saha will be wicketkeepers while one of Mayank Agarwal and Lokesh Rahul can make it to the reserve batsman. While Prithvi Shaw has a tough road ahead for the selection.
India vs England: Potential Indian Team
Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj, T Natarajan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shahbaz Nadeem, Kuldeep Yadav.
The Indian team has to play the first Test against England from 5th to 9th February and the second Test from 13th to 17th February. Both the matches will be played in Chennai. The England team is currently on a visit to Sri Lanka and will leave for Chennai on January 27.
