The All-India Senior Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Indian team squad for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final and saw the return of Ajinkya Rahane to the red-ball squad.
The WTC final will be held between June 7 and 11 at the Oval, with a reserve day on June 12 between Australia and India.
Rahane, who made his Test debut in 2013, has not been a member of the red-ball squad since the Cape Town Test last year against South Africa, where he made 9 and 1. This performance capped a rough stretch of play on the trip, during which he scored just 136 runs from six innings.
Rahane was therefore benched for the ensuing Test series against Sri Lanka, but Chetan Sharma, the head of India’s selection committee at the time, maintained that Rahane’s future options were still open.
He had also lost his central contract in the BCCI’s central contracts list for the current cycle. However, he recovered well from injuries and ended as Mumbai’s leading scorer in the Ranji Trophy, with 634 runs from seven matches, including a double-century against Hyderabad, and 191 against Assam.
Rahane has also done well for the Chennai Super Kings in the ongoing IPL 2023.
With Shreyas Iyer being out of action due to his back surgery and Suryakumar Yadav failing to use the opportunity to cement himself in the middle order against Australia, the selectors fell back to the experience of Ajinkya Rahane for the important ICC WTC 2023 final.
No Surprises In The Indian Squad; Rohit Sharma To Lead
Meanwhile, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul are among the six specialist batsmen picked to the roster, and Rohit Sharma will continue to serve as the team’s captain. Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer, who are both rehabbing from back ailments, were not considered.
KS Bharat was picked as the keeper-batter. Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel were the spin-bowling all-rounders while Shardul Thakur was picked as the pace-bowling all-rounder.
Mohammed Siraj, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, and Jaydev Unadkat were picked in the pace department.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), 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