Rishabh Pant made his way back into the Test fold after close to 20 months as India announced a 16-man squad for the opening match of the two-Test series against Bangladesh starting on September 19. Virat Kohli too made a comeback into the side, having missed the five-Test series at home against England earlier this year owing to a break for the birth of his second child.
While fast bowler Mohammed Shami remains on a comeback trail and was not included in the squad, uncapped left-arm Uttar Pradesh fast bowler Yash Dayal received his maiden Test call-up. The India pace spearhead, Jasprit Bumrah, who last donned national colours in the T20 World Cup, was back in the squad and he is expected to turn out for at least a couple of more Tests against New Zealand in October-November, before the team flies out to Australia for a five-Test series.
Bumrah is probably the only player other than Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma who has been given complete freedom of selection as per the workload requirement and how his body responds, say sources.
Having played in the second and final Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur from December 22-25, 2022, Pant had met a road accident a few days later on December 30 and made his return to topflight cricket only in IPL this year.
The 26-year-old swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batter made a return to the national side in their title-winning campaign in the T20 World Cup. Shami, on the other hand, failed to make it to the Test side even though chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had earlier expressed that the right-arm seamer was targeting a return in the first Test against Bangladesh.
Dayal, once smashed for five consecutive sixes by Rinku Singh in an IPL game, has effected a stunning redemption with his India call-up.
The UP-seamer's mother reportedly fell ill and stopped eating after that game, but he impressed in his stints last year with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Dayal has played 24 First-Class matches for Uttar Pradesh since his debut in 2018, taking 76 wickets.
KL Rahul, who had suffered a right quadriceps injury after the first Test against England at Hyderabad, also made a comeback into the Test side. Rahul scored 37 and a valiant 57 for India A against India B in the Duleep Trophy encounter in Bengaluru which concluded on Sunday.
As expected, the likes of Rajat Patidar, Devdutt Padikkal and Mukesh Kumar failed to win a place while wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, who played one of the leading roles with robust performances against England including two match-winning knocks of 90 and 39* in the Ranchi Test.
While Patidar was short on runs in the three Tests he played against England, Padikkal scored a composed 65 on debut at Dharamsala but had to make way with Kohli returning and Sarfaraz retaining his place.
After an impressive three-wicket burst on his Test debut at Ranchi against England, right-arm Bengal pacer Akash Deep picked up nine wickets in the Duleep Trophy match for India A against India B in Bengaluru.
The long Test season starts for India with the first of the two Tests against Bangladesh in Chennai. The second Test of the series will be played at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur from September 27 to October 1.
India and Bangladesh have played 13 Tests so far in which the former has won 11 times while two have ended in draws. Bangladesh will enter this series having recorded a historic 2-0 win over Pakistan in the opponent's backyard whereas it will be India's first Test assignment since beating England 4-1 in January-March earlier this year.
After the Tests against New Zealand at Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai, the team will play in Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting November 22 at Perth.
India squad for 1st Test: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.
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