India's 15-man squad for the upcoming home Test series against the West Indies has finally been announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), through top selector Ajit Agarkar. Anticipation and discussions have already started since the squad's announcement. The team also looks strong on paper. This will be the second series for Subhman as captain, and Ravindra Jadeja will be his vice captain amid Rishab Pant’s injury scare.
Dropped Players
Karun Nair, whose inconsistent performances in England cost him his spot, is a significant omission. Agarkar supported the decision, arguing that retention could not be justified by a single strong innings.
Devdutt Padikkal has returned to the team to cover the void; his domestic results and prior Test cricket experience reportedly satisfied them of his suitability. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy also returns after recovering from an injury.
Bengal's star player, Abhimanyu Easwaran, was dropped from the India squad without any opportunity. In first-class cricket, he has an average of 48.67 and has frequently led Bengal to victory. With 31 fifties and 27 hundreds in first-class cricket, the prominent top-order player has been an enduring member of the Indian test side.
Shreyas Iyer, who made him unavailable due to fitness issues, takes a break from test cricket for six months, and Sarfaraz Khan is also sidelined with an injury.
Ajit Agarkar praises Sai and told Sai has shown a lot of promise; he’s a very good player. Hopefully, we can give him a longish run from now on at a particular position. When people like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retire, those are big holes to fill, not to forget Ashwin retired a few months back, and Shami hasn’t played for a while. Those guys have been the key players for the last 10 years. A lot of these young guys have shown really good signs in England, which was a really tough tour, even though we didn’t win it, but there were lots of positives, and we can build on them. Hopefully, we can give these guys time to actually build their careers.
The bowling attack includes Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna, while Gill's spin-bowling options include Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel. Agarkar stated that the pace frontline is available for both Tests of this series, even though Bumrah was only available for three of the five Test matches in England due to workload management.
Pant, who was the vice-captain in England, is yet to recover from a foot injury that he suffered in the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester. Dhruv Jurel and N. Jagadeesan are the two wicketkeepers in the 15-member contingent.
The squad
Shubman Gill (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, N. Jagadeesan (WK), Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav.
