The India-England Test series is on the heels of getting kicked off in Hyderabad on Thursday, January 25 with both teams having their respective issues as far as team balance and lack of confidence is concerned. England will be playing for the first time in India since the Bazball approach took over the course in Test cricket while the hosts will be without either of the trio of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane or Cheteshwar Pujara, for the first time in 12 years and hence a test of the slightly inexperienced middle-order.
Kohli pulled out the first two Tests citing personal reasons while the selectors didn't look at either of them, even as replacement of former India captain in the squad. Apart from Kohli, there were a few other changes in the side from the last time India played a Test series, which was last month against South Africa - take a look-
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Axar Patel, the left-arm spinner who troubled the English team three years ago is back having missed the South Africa tour and similarly for Kuldeep Yadav as well, given the conditions in the rainbow nation. Apart from these two, Dhruv Jurel got a maiden Test call-up as the second wicketkeeping option apart from KS Bharat with KL Rahul set to play as a specialist batter. Last but not the least, Rajat Patidar, who has been in sensational form in the India A matches received a call-up replacing Kohli in the squad.
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Kohli, as mentioned above will remain unavailable for the first two matches in Hyderabad and Vizag. Apart from him, Abhimanyu Easwaran was the unfortunate one to be left out of the squad despite scoring runs day in and day out in first-class cricket. Apart from him, pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur has also been omitted while pacer Prasidh Krishna, who made his debut in the South Africa series has also been left out. Krishna could take just two wickets in as many games while Shardul was left out of the second Test in Cape Town. Avesh Khan has been retained as the fourth pacer with Mohammed Shami still recovering from his injury.
India's Test squad for first two matches against England: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rajat Patidar, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan
