Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in Virat Kohli’s absence in next month’s one-off Test against Afghanistan, it was announced here on Tuesday.
Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have also been left out of the side, with a view to managing their workloads, while Karun Nair has been favoured over Rohit Sharma.
The senior selection committee, comprising chairman M.S.K. Prasad, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh, and India-A coach Rahul Dravid met here on Tuesday evening.
Five different squads were announced — India’s T20I team for series against Ireland and England, the ODI team for the England series, and India-A sides for one-day and four-day fixtures against England Lions and West Indies-A in the U.K.
Kohli will miss the Afghanistan Test while he turns out for Surrey in the English County Championship as preparation for India’s long tour later this year, a decision that has Prasad’s endorsement.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, who are playing for Yorkshire and Sussex respectively, will, however, be part of the one-off fixture in Bengaluru.
There was no Test call-up for Shreyas Iyer but the Mumbai batsman is part of the ODI unit and will lead the India-A team in the one-day tri-series against England Lions and West Indies-A.
Karun Nair was dropped for India’s tour of South Africa earlier this year but the Karnataka batsman was not only recalled to the Test side but also named captain of India-A for the four-day games.
Asked why no Test regulars were named in the India-A sides for the four-day games, Prasad stated “We did discuss it. We had a meeting with Virat and Ravi (Shastri) and also Rahul (Dravid).
“Some of the Test specialists like Wriddhiman Saha, M. Vijay and Md. Shami will join us for the third India-A game and from there they will go and play against Essex (tour game) and continue with the Test team.”
There was no place for Rahane or Manish Pandey in India’s ODI team for England, while K.L. Rahul was recalled (in this format).
Also included were Ambati Rayudu, Siddarth Kaul and Umesh Yadav, on the back of fine performances in the ongoing IPL. Kaul, who has 13 wickets at an economy rate of 7.05 this IPL, is also part of India’s T20I team for the Ireland and England series.
R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who have not played limited-over cricket for India since the tour of West Indies last July, were left out of the white-ball sides again, with Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar preferred instead.
“Of course [they stand a chance of coming back],” said Prasad of Ashwin and Jadeja. “When they were excluded from the side, we made it very clear that two to three youngsters are being given an opportunity.
“It makes sense to give them a long rope. If you see the number of wickets they have taken in the last year or so, it’s very heartening.
“And they have kept on improving game after game. It makes sense to continue with them when they are winning games for us at home and abroad.”
The Ranji Trophy performances of Mayank Agarwal and Rajneesh Gurbani were only good enough for berths in the India-A teams, while Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, stars from India’s U-19 World Cup triumph, were called up to the A side for the one-day tri-series.
Test squad : Ajinkya Rahane (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, M. Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur
T20s against Ireland : Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav
T20s against England : Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav
ODIs against England : Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav
' A' team for one-day tri-series in UK : Shreyas Iyer (Capt), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubhman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, K. Gowtham, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Prasidh Krishna, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur
' A' team for four-day matches in UK: Karun Nair (Capt), R. Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, AR Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wk), Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Momammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani
