The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today announced the squad for the upcoming home Test series against New Zealand. The selectors have retained 15 members of the squad which toured West Indies with Stuart Binny and Shardul Thakur missing out.
Rohit Sharma’s selection and exclusion of Gautam Gambhir made highlights as BCCI decided to give another go to out of form Rohit Sharma. The chief selector Sandeep feels that Rohit hasn’t been given fair chances and need some more opportunities to prove himself “He (Rohit Sharma) hasn’t got a longer run in Tests cricket. He has been picked for one Test and then got dropped. So the selection committee has decided that whoever would be picked would be given a longer run,” Patil said while addressing the media after the selection meeting.
More than Rohit’s inclusion it is Gambhir’s exclusion which is making the rounds as the Delhi opener has been sidelined despite a good run in Duleep trophy. In four innings played by Gambhir in Duleep trophy, he has scored 77, 90, 59 and 94.
However, Sandeep Patil revealed that Gambhir’s name was discussed but he could not make the final cut as selectors decided to retain Shikhar Dhawan. Also with the emergence of KL Rahul in past few months, including Gambhir was not at all easy for selectors.
As per the schedule, New Zealand team has arrived in India on September 11 and will play first practice match on September 16 against Mumbai Ranji team at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.
New Zealand will kick-off Test series from September 22; the first Test will be played in Green Park which will host Test cricket after a gap of six years. Both the teams will fly to Kolkata for the second Test which begins on September 30.
The third and final Test match will be played in Holkar stadium, from October 8, in Madhya Pradesh. Holker stadium will make a debut in Test cricket. Five ODI matches series will follow the Test series. The Kiwis will announce the squad for ODI series later.
New Zealand last toured India in the year 2012 to play a two-match Test series and the same number of T20Is. Indian team won both the Test matches whereas the New Zealand team continued its winning streak against India in T20Is.
The Indian team will have a chance to reclaim the number 1 spot in the ICC rankings in this Test series, in the process dethroning Pakistan from the top spot.
Indian team for the Test series against New Zealand is as follows:
TEST squad – Virat Kohli (Capt), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Vijay, Rohit Sharma , Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav.