BCCI officially announced that Jasprit Bumrah will lead the Indian side in the fifth and final test vs England at Edgbaston. The board also announced Rishabh Pant as the vice-captain of the team.
"Rohit Sharma, Captain, Indian Cricket Team is ruled out of the rescheduled fifth Test against England to be played from Friday. Rohit underwent a RAT Test on Thursday morning and returned a positive result for COVID-19. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Mr Jasprit Bumrah as captain for the upcoming Test and Rishabh Pant as his deputy," a BCCI statement read.
With this announcement, Jasprit Bumrah becomes the first fast bowler in 35 years to lead the Indian team after the legendary Kapil Dev. The Chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma had already said that he is being groomed as a future leader.
Earlier, India head coach Rahul Dravid, in a press interaction on Wednesday, said that Rohit Sharma was being monitored closely and was not ruled out of the fifth and final test vs England as most of the reports stated.
He further added that Rohit will obviously need to test negative, and will again undergo a COVID test on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Rohit had batted on the first day of the ongoing warm-up game against Leicestershire but didn't take the field on the second day. He did not bat in the second Indian innings.
Ravichandran Ashwin also tested positive for COVID-19 before the team left for the UK tour. He joined the team in England late. The matches are not played under a bio-bubble in the UK now. India too hosted South Africa recently without a bio-bubble.
Team India is set to play one rescheduled test match, three ODIs and three T20Is against England.
Full squads:
India’s squad fifth Test vs England: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Srikar Bharat (wk)
India's squad for ODIs and T20Is vs England: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
