Ajinkya Rahane’s experience and current form earned him a recall to the Indian Test squad for the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia, which will be played at The Oval in London from June 7 to 11 this year.
Rahane’s comeback after 15 months was on predictable lines after Shreyas Iyer’s back injury ruled him out of the grand finale. Iyer has undergone a surgery in UK for lower back stress fracture.
Rahane played last of his 82 Tests in January, 2022 against South Africa in Cape Town.
BCCI’s five-man selection panel, secretary Jay Shah along with skipper Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid met on Monday evening to decide on the squad. The board announced the squad on Tuesday, which included three spinners in the form of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, besides five pacers — Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat.
Rahane’s selection has more to do with carrying enough experienced batters in the line-up as Indian teams have had their share of struggles in SENA countries during one off games like these.
The 34-year-old, who led Mumbai during entire domestic season
Scored nearly 700 runs but what stood out was how he has improved his attacking game in the IPL and is looking more purposeful than ever before with a strike-rate of 190 in seven games so far
KS Bharat is the designated wicketkeeper in the squad, as Rishabh Pant remains unavailable while recuperating from the injuries suffered in a car crash last December.
Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav, who were part of the home series against Australia, were dropped.
There is no designated vice captain for the WTC final, though it is expected that Chesteshwar Pujara, who was Sharma’s deputy in the last two Test matches against Australia at home, would be asked to do the job again.
- INDIA SQUAD: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
- Australia World Test Championship Final squad: 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.
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