India announce squad for last three Tests vs England; Virat Kohli notable absentee, Shreyas Iyer misses out

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s squad for the remaining three Test matches against England on Saturday, February 10. The star wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul returned to the team after missing the Vizag Test due to an injury and so has Ravindra Jadeja but the likes of Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami remain out due to different reasons.

While Virat is unavailable due to personal reasons, Shami is likely nursing an injury.

The struggling batter Shreyas Iyer is a notable absentee from the team for the next three matches. Iyer scored just 104 runs in four innings in this series after a string of poor performances on the South Africa tour. Both Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan have been retained in the team with the latter tipped to make his highly-anticipated debut in the Rajkot Test starting February 15.

India levelled the five-match series with a 106-run win in the Vizag Test after heroic efforts by Japrit Bumrah and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Bumrah is dominating the leaderboard with 15 wickets and dethroned Ravichandran Ashwin to become the no.1 Test bowler in the ICC rankings. 

Notably, the participation of Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja in the third Test is subject to medical clearance. 

On the other hand, left-arm orthodox bowler Saurabh Kumar has been released from the squad and that has paved the way for the inclusion of Bengal’s right-arm medium pacer Akash Deep. The 27-year-old bowling allrounder has picked up 103 scalps in 29 first-class games at a stellar average of 23.18 and has been rewarded for his hard grind in the domestic circuit.

India’s squad for the last three Tests vs England:

Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul*, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep.