India’s team for the 2 ENG Tests is announced by BCCI : Jurel is a new face, Shami and Kishan are out.

India’s team for the 2 ENG Tests is announced by BCCI : Jurel is a new face, Shami and Kishan are out.

The Indian team did not select pacer Mohammed Shami, who is currently recovering from an ankle injury, for the first two Test matches against England, which begin in Hyderabad on January 25. Ishan Kishan, the wicketkeeper-batter for the five-Test series, was not included in the 16-man team that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released on Friday night for the opening two games of the series.

Pacer Avesh Khan was also included to the squad, and gloveman Dhruv Jurel received his first-ever appointment to the Test team. The other two wicketkeeper-batters in the team are KL Rahul and KS Bharat. The veteran R Ashwin will lead a spin-heavy team that has Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel back. As a precaution, Shami has not been picked in the team and has not played any competitive cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

Ishan, who is still notably absent from the first two Tests, took a vacation from the two-match Test series in South Africa and the current Twenty20 International series at home against Afghanistan. Prasidh Krishna, a pacer for Karnataka, was also not taken into consideration since on this day he too suffered a left quadricep injury while playing Gujarat for the Ranji Trophy. All-rounder Shardul Thakur, who bowls at a fast pace, was also out, while left-arm spinner Axar Patel returned to the team as predicted.

However, the inclusion of Uttar Pradesh player Jurel headlined the selection. In December of last year, the 22-year-old participated in two matches for the India A team against their South African opponents. In the Ranji Trophy’s first round group game in Alappuzha, he scored 69 for UP against Kerala after making 63 in the second match at Benoni.

Jurel, who made his First-Class debut against Vidarbha last year, has amassed 790 runs at an average of 46 from 15 matches thus far, including five fifty-fives on the local circuit. In the two Test matches against South Africa, Rahul had played with the huge gloves and done so rather successfully.

However, it is doubtful that the Bengaluru player would stay in the job against England because the Indians will almost certainly select three spinners—Ravindra Jadeja, Axar, and Ravichandran Ashwin a decision that calls for a specialist to be behind the wickets.

India squad for first 2 Tests vs England : Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan

England’s 16-man squad : Ben Stokes, Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood

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