Hardik Pandya has been included in India’s 18-man squad for the first two Tests of the home series against England, starting next month. The national selectors, who met today, have also handed a call-up to left-arm spinner Axar Patel to strengthen the spin department.
The squad was finalised by the newly assembled Indian selection committee headed by former India fast bowler Chetan Sharma. Attending the meeting virtually was India captain Virat Kohli, who had returned home in December from the Australia tour to attend the birth of his first child.
Also present at the meeting, which took place hours after India’s epic triumph in the Gabba Test, were the four other selectors: Sunil Joshi, Abey Kuruvilla, Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh, who is in Brisbane.
The selectors have also named four standbys, who will be inducted into the squad in case anyone from the main squad needed to be replaced. These standbys, essentially back-ups, will not be travelling with the India squad, but will be pulled out of the second domestic tournament, which the BCCI will announce shortly, if there is a requirement.
Among the standbys, all of whom have featured in India A, are India and Jharkhand left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, Andhra wicket-keeper KS Bharat, Bengal opening batsman Abhimanya Easwaran and Rajasthan legspinner Rahul Chahar.
Also part of the enhanced squad, which has become a norm due to the pandemic, will be five net bowlers comprising: the fast bowling trio of Ankit Rajpoot (Uttar Pradesh), Avesh Khan (Madhya Pradesh) and Sandeep Warrier (Kerala).
There are also two spinners among the net bowlers: Karnataka spin-bowling allrounder K Gowtham and Uttar Pradesh left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar.
Indian squad:
Batsmen: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul (subject to fitnsess after first Test)
Bowlers: 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
