Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Indian squad which will take on Afghanistan for the one-off Test starting June 14 in Bengaluru. The notable inclusion in the squad is that of Karun Nair, who has made his way into the team in place of captain Virat Kohli.
Nair has been in decent form in the ongoing Indian Premier League while playing for Kings XI Punjab. Nair, who scored a triple century against England in December 2016, last played for India during the Dharamsala Test against Australia in March last year.
Apart from Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma were rested for the one-off Test against Afghanistan at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The regulars – Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja retained their places in the team which will be led by vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma will come back from England after Yorkshire’s away game against Surrey at the Oval from May 11-14. Yorkshire’s next match is on June 20 against Hampshire.
Kohli will be plying his trade for Surrey in his maiden county stint to prepare for India’s Test series in England in June. But he will play in the two Twenty20 Internationals against Ireland in Dublin in June.
Kohli will become the sixth Indian to play for Surrey. The other five include Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, and Pragyan Ojha.
Back in 2014, Kohli had a disastrous time in England. He scored 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 in the five Tests and finished the series with an average of 13.50.
However, he has been in sensational form since. Kohli returned to India and worked on his technique with Sachin Tendulkar. Later that year, he toured Australia and slammed four hundreds in four Tests.
The Indian captain has since also scored six double hundreds including four in successive series. Against England in the five-Test series at home, Kohli scored 655 runs and led India to a 4-0 triumph.
Kohli was also in top form in South Africa, smashing 871 runs across formats. He was the leading run-scorer in the Test and ODI series.
The 29-year-old now wants to conquer England and the stint with Surrey will be crucial.
The selectors also announced the squads for the limited-overs leg of the UK tour along with the India ‘A’ tour of England.
Squad for Afghanistan Test: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur
Squad for two-match T20I series against Ireland
Virat (Capt), Shikhar, Rohit, KL Rahul, Raina, Manish, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Hardik, Kaul, Umesh
Squad for three-match T20I series against England
Virat (Capt), Shikhar, Rohit, KL Rahul, Raina, Manish, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Hardik, Kaul, Umesh
Squad for three-match ODI series against England
Virat (Capt), Shikhar, Rohit, KL Rahul, Shreyas, Rayudu, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Hardik, Kaul, Umesh
Squad for One-Day Tri-series in the U.K.
Shreyas (Capt), Prithvi, Mayank Agarwal, Shubhman Gill, H. Vihari, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, K. Gowtham, Axar, Krunal, Prasidh Krishna, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul
India ‘A’ team for four-day matches in the U.K.
Karun (Capt), R. Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, AR Easwaran, Prithvi, H.Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wk), Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Md Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani
