Dhruv Jurel handed maiden call-up as India announce squad for first two Tests against England, no Ishan Kishan yet
Apart from a couple of surprises, Team India have announced a rather straightforward Test squad for the first two games of the five-match series against England beginning on January 25 in Hyderabad.
As per head coach Rahul Dravid's comments, wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan still seems to be unavailable for selection, and that has opened the gates for Uttar Pradesh wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel. The youngster recently featured for India A against South Africa A and scored an impressive 69 in Benoni.
Interestingly, Jurel is the third wicketkeeper named in the squad after KL Rahul and KS Bharat. It will be interesting to see if the Indian team management trusts KL Rahul with the gloves on potential square turners in the home series against England. They could also hand Dhruv Jurel a shock debut, especially given KS Bharat didn't quite make full use of his opportunities with the bat.
Squad for first 2 Tests vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan.
Mohammed Shami yet to be available for India after ankle injury
There are no major surprises in the bowling department as Mohammed Shami is yet to recover from the ankle injury that ruled him out of the Test series against South Africa. Shami recently gave an update about his fitness and he is hopeful of getting back into the mix soon.
Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah are accompanied by Mukesh Kumar and the uncapped Avesh Khan in the pace department. The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav are the usual suspects in the spin arsenal.
The starting XI for the hosts looks more or less settled with wicketkeeping being an area of intrigue.