The BCCI on Thursday announced that Jasprit Bumrah would lead India in the fifth test match against England, making him the first fast bowler in 35 years to lead the Indian Test team. Rishabh Pant will be the vice-captain for the match. India's designated captain Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the match after he tested Covid-19 positive for the second time on Wednesday.
The last pacer who captained India was the great Kapil Dev. He last captained India in 1987. Since then, India has never had a fast bowler leading the team in test cricket.
Bumrah will be the 36th cricketer to lead India in the longest-format since the country first played in 1932. The Gujarat pacer, who has 123 wickets in 29 Tests, will lead the bowling pack as they face a formidable England side who are fresh of a win against New Zealand.
India lead the five-match Test series 2-1, and a win or even a draw will help them clinch the series.
The 28-year-old Bumrah was earlier named vice-captain during India's tour of South Africa during the ODI series, with KL Rahul leading the side in Sharma's absence. Bumrah was also the vice-captain during the Test and T20I series against Sri Lanka.
With Rohit Sharma out of the test match, Cheteshwar Pujara or Hanuma Vihari is likely to open with Shubman Gill. Mayank Agarwal has been brought in as replacement for Sharma.
"Mayank is here just as cover. It is likely to be Pujara-Gill combination that is going to open the batting. There is an outside chance for Hanuma Vihari to open as he has done the job in a stop-gap arrangement in Australia during the 2018 series. But chances of Pujara opening are way more," PTI quoted a senior BCCI official as saying.
It is understood that the specialist batters in the set-up will be Pujara, Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Vihari and Rishabh Pant, PTI reported.
India's Test squad: Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal.