Rishabh Pant is set to make his India Test return after being out for 634 days, as the BCCI is likely to announce the squad for a two-Test series against Bangladesh very soon. Both the Tests will be part of the ongoing CC World Test Championship (WTC 2025).
Bangladesh will play two Tests from September 19 in Chennai and September 27 in Kanpur. The two sides will then clash in three T20Is on October 7 in Gwalior, October 9 in Delhi, and October 12 in Hyderabad.
Rishabh Pant in contention for Test return
Bangladesh is coming off a 2-0 whitewash of Pakistan in their own backyard, while India will play any red-ball game for the first time since March 2024.
The focus will be on Rishabh Pant, who will return to the Test team after 634 days. The keeper-batter last played red-ball cricket for India in a 2022 series against the Bangladesh National Cricket Team.
Following that, Pant was involved in a horrific accident in December and was forced to miss more than a year of action, including the World Test Championship Final.
Pant then returned to cricket with the IPL 2024 and for the Indian squad in the T20 World Cup 2024. He played well for the team and returned to ODIs in the last game of the three-match series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team.
BCCI to announce India Tests squad for Bangladesh series next month
Meanwhile, Sportstak has reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be announcing the squad for the two-match series next month.
A BCCI source told the website that Duleep Trophy first-round matches won’t have much say in squad selection for the Bangladesh series.
Virat Kohli will play his first Test since January. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will form the opening duo. Sarfaraz Khan is expected to play, as are Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel, the three spin-bowling all-rounders.
The team will also have the youthful Dhruv Jurel as the other wicketkeeper. Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, and Mukesh Kumar are most likely to be confirmed for the squad. Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh will compete for the last position.
This series will be critical in determining India’s lineup for the forthcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will be hosted in Australia later this year.
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