All those Sir Ravindra Jadeja fans out there can start rejoicing, as the allrounder from Saurashtra will soon grace Team India with his auspicious presence after a gap of nearly 14 months. Yes, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the new squad for the upcoming Tests and Sir Jadeja’s names figures in the list.
After having two successful domestic matches in the current Ranji trophy bagging 24 wickets, Jadeja has been selected in the test squad. Harbhajan Singh was left out of the squad.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee headed by Sandeep Patil met in New Delhi earlier on Monday to select the squads for the test matches as well as the remaining two one-day-internationals. There has also been one change in the ODI squad with Sreenath Arvind replacing fellow seamer Umesh Yadav.
Here is the list of the squads announced by the selection committee :
India ODI squad: MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Axar Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Mohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, S Arvind, Stuart Binny, Ambati Rayudu, Gurkeerat Mann . India Test squad (first two Tests): Virat Kohli (capt), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Stuart Binny, Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma. Board President XI: Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Unmukt Chand, Karun Nair, Shreyar Iyer, Naman Ojha, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Nathu Singh, Karn Sharma, Sheldon Jackson
However, despite being a part of the squad, the team will have to keep a close watch on spinner R Ashwin fitness . Presently, South Africa is leading the five-match ODI series 2-1. The remaining two matches will be played in Chennai and Mumbai respectively. The Test series will begin from November 5 with Mohali, Bengaluru, Nagpur and Delhi as the venues respectively.
(With inputs from PTI)