The in-form batting duo of Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw have been rewarded with the opportunity to debue during the two-match Test series against West indies. During last season, the right-handed batsman scored 1160 runs in eight Ranji Trophy games last season, with five hundreds, two fifties. The 15-man squad for the home series was announced by the MSK Prasad-led selection panel on Saturday.
While the Test squad did not include the likes of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and fast bowler Ishant Sharma will go through a fitness test before the selectors take a final call on their selection for the upcoming series, starting October 4.
"Ashwin is already doing his rehabilitation at the NCA for groin injury. Even Ishant is expected to join him there. As of now, there is a fitness test scheduled on Saturday, 29 September. The selectors may announce the team a day earlier if NCA physios and trainers rule the duo out even before fitness tests," a senior BCCI official told PTI on Wednesday.
With selectors naming Chetehwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Aajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari to strenghten the middle order; Hardik Pandya has been left out because of a serious back injury during the Asia Cup. The all-rounder was earlier left out of the Final Test against England.
Also, seamers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been rested taking into consideration the recent workload the duo have been bearing up with.
The two-Test series gets underway from October 4. Rajkot will host the first Test while the second Test will be played from October 12 in Hyderabad, followed by five ODIs and three T20Is.
India Team: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur