BCCI, on Tuesday has announced India's squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia. Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur have been included to the team which will be led by Rohit Sharma. On the other hand, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav have failed to make cut in the 15-member squad.
The WTC Final between India and Australia is slated for June 7 to June 11. June. The match is scheduled to be played at The Oval, London. Earlier, Australia topped the WTC Championship table with 66.67 PCT, while India ended second with 58.8 PCT to make it to the summit clash.
Ajinkya Rahane who was out of the Test team for a long time of about 17 months has finally made a return to the squad. He is currently playing for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 and has been impressive with the bat so far. Shardul Thakur is also set to play for Team India after almost a year. Shreyas Iyer who is currently recovering from a back injury had pulled out from the fourth Test against Australia. He has missed the cut in the WTC final squad. KS Bharat is the only specialist wicketkeeper in the team. Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav, who were part of the home series against Australia weren't included in the squad.
India's Test Squad for WTC Final
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
Australia Cricket Board had also announced their squad, last week. All-rounder Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Harris and Josh Inglis have been recalled to the Test side while Peter Handscomb has been left out despite a productive India tour recently. Meanwhile, Harris pipped Cameron Bancroft as the back-up opener despite the latter smashing 945 runs in the Sheffield Shield season this year.
Australia squad for WTC Final:
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
