The Board of Cricket Council of India (BCCI), announced a 20-member India squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against New Zealand and the five-match Test series against England later in the summer. The squad does not include Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Prithvi Shaw.
The WTC Final will be played from 18 to 22 June in Southampton. On the other hand, the England series will begin on 4 August and, it will continue till 14 September.
Ravindra Jadeja, who sustained a thumb injury in the Australia tour earlier this year, has returned to the squad. His short-term replacement, Axar Patel, too, has retained his place.
BCCI also mentioned two ’keepers KL Rahul and Wriddhiman Saha, subject to fitness clearance for featuring in the line-up. Rahul underwent acute appendicitis surgery a week ago, while Saha had tested positive for COVID-19 on the day when IPL 2021 got suspended indefinitely.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, and Arzan Nagwaswalla have been named standby options.
India's squad for WTC Final and England Tests: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav.
Subject to fitness clearance: KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha.