The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Indian squad for the rest of the two Tests against England on Wednesday. The U-19 World Cup winning skipper Prithvi Shaw and batsman Hanuma Vihari have been inducted into the side to replace opener Murali Vijay and Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav respectively.
Vijay’s performance with the bat has been dismal so far in the series. He opened for India in the first two games and managed to score just 26 runs in four innings. Moreover, Vijay scored two ducks in both the innings of the Lord’s Test. This was an embarrassing record and he became the sixth Indian opener to score ducks in both innings of a Test match.
On the other hand, Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has been dropped from the last two Tests. He played the second Test at Lord's and failed to scalp a single wicket.
Star pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also not been included as he still in the recovery phase and yet to be declared fit to play.
18-year-old Shaw has a terrific record in the first-class cricket. In 14 games, he has scored 1418 runs including 7 centuries and 5 half-centuries. He recently played a phenomenal 188-run knock against West Indies ‘A’ in Worcester.
On the other hand, Hyderabad’s Hanuma Vihari has the highest first-class batting average in the world.
59.45 – this is the average Vihari is currently carrying against his name. Surprisingly, he has surpassed former Aussie skipper Steve Smith (57.27), Indian skipper Virat Kohli (53.97), Rohit Sharma (54.71) and Cheteshwar Pujara (53.94).
Here's the complete squad:
Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Hanuma Vihari