India have named three uncapped players – opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, fast bowler Harshit Rana and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy – in their squad of 18 for the five-Test tour of Australia starting on November 22.
Fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who hasn’t regained full fitness since his ankle surgery earlier this year, was not included while wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav was also not available for selection because of a “chronic left groin issue” according to a BCCI release. Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed are part of the travelling reserves.
Rohit Sharma leads the squad with Jasprit Bumrah as his vice-captain. But with Rohit set to miss one of the first two Tests for personal reasons, it’s likely that Abhimanyu, 29, will make his Test debut on the tour. He has been part of India’s Test squad previously – in Bangladesh in 2022 – and has been in superb form this domestic season, scoring two hundreds in the Duleep Trophy, another century in the Irani Trophy, and beginning the Ranji Trophy season with a ton for Bengal.
India have picked three spin allrounders R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who marked his return to the Test team after more than three years with a ten-wicket haul against New Zealand in Pune. Reddy, 21, is the only seam-bowling allrounder in the squad for Australia. He will have extra time to acclimatise considering he is part of the India A team that will be playing two four-day games in Mackay and Melbourne. Reddy made his T20I debut against Bangladesh earlier this month and was a reserve player in the Test squad for the home series against New Zealand, he is already in Australia. He is seen by India’s selectors as a promising allrounder who could improve with more experience and exposure.
Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh and Rana are the other fast bowlers in squad apart from Bumrah. Prasidh, who has played two Tests previously, has just started playing again after recovering from a serious back injury, while 22-year-old Rana has played only nine first-class matches. Rana, who represents Delhi, took two four-wicket hauls for India D in the Duleep Trophy in September and has 36 wickets at an average of 24.75 in first-class cricket. With Khaleel in the reserves and no Yash Dayal, India don’t have a left-arm quick in the main squad.
India begin their tour with a warm-up match against India A in Perth from November 15 to 17, after which they play the first Test against Australia at Perth Stadium from November 22 to 26. They then travel to Canberra for a tour match against the Prime Minister’s XI on November 30 and December 1, before heading to Adelaide for the second Test, a day-night fixture from December 6 to 10. The third Test in Brisbane is from December 14 to 18, and followed by the traditional Boxing Day Test in Melbourne starting December 26 and the New Year’s Test in Sydney from January 3.
India are the holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and have won their two previous tours of Australia by a 2-1 margin, in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
India squad for tour of Australia
Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
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