Hours after the historic series win against Australia, the BCCI have announced the squad for the first two Test matches against England in Chennai.
The Chetan Sharma led selection committee have named captain Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya in the squad, ESPN reported.
Pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur were all rewarded for their performances in Australia, having been retained in the squad, while T Natarajan, brought into the Test squad in Australia after a flurry of injuries to the first-choice pacers, has not been included.
Siraj finished the Australia tour with 13 wickets in three Tests, the highest for India, while Thakur picked up seven wickets to go with his crucial half-century in Brisbane.
R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel are the spinners included in the squad.
The likes of KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar have been named four stand-byes who will be inducted into the squad in case of anyone from the main squad was to be replaced.
Current India openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma will likely extend their opening partnership, with Mayank Agarwal named the third opener. Prithvi Shaw was left out altogether while Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha and KL Rahul have also been included. However, KL Rahul, who flew back from Australia after injuring himself in training will join the squad from the 2nd Test onwards.
Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel.
Standbyes: KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Abhimanya Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar
Net bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, K Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)