The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced the eighteen member squad for the first two test matches against England that is due to begin on the 5th of February in Chennai. Star batsman and Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli, who flew to India on paternity leave after his first Test match at Adelaide, is back at the helm of affairs. Ishant Sharma who could not play the test series against Australia because of an abdomen strain is fit and back on his feet and recently represented Delhi in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The veteran pacer will be leading the pace attack along with the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and Brisbane hero Shardul Thakur. Thangarasu Natarajan, who got three wickets on his Test debut at the Gabba, will, unfortunately, be unavailable for the England series as he is on paternity leave. All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who featured only in the limited-overs series in Australia, will also be returning to the most extended format.
The first and second Tests will be played in Chennai while Ahmedabad will host the third and fourth Test respectively. A five-match T20I series and three ODIs will come after the four-match test series, which will conclude on the 28th of March in Pune.
Ranji Trophy triple century scorer Kona Srikar Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, IPL fame Rahul Chahar and Priyank Panchal have been named as standby players.
The playing XI squad for the first two tests are given below:
- Rohit Sharma
- Shubman Gill
- Cheteshwar Pujara
- Mayank Agarwal
- Virat Kohli (Captain)
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Rishabh Pant
- KL Rahul
- Wriddhiman Saha
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Ishant Sharma
- Mohammed Siraj
- Shardul Thakur
- R Ashwin
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Washington Sundar
- Axar Patel
Standby Players
- KS Bharat
- Abhimanyu Easwaran
- Shahbaz Nadeem
- Rahul Chahar
- Priyank Panchal
Net Bowlers
- Ankit Rajpoot
- Avesh Khan
- Sandeep Warrier
- K Gowtham
- Saurabh Kumar
The Test series fixtures are as follows
- Test No.1 – February 5 to February 9 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
- Test No. 2 – February 13 to February 17 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
- Test No. 3 – February 24 to February 28 at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad (D/N)
- Test No.4 – March 4 to March 8 at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
The T20I series schedule is as follows:
- March 12: I T20I at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
- March 14: II T20I at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
- March 16: III T20I at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
- March 18: IV T20I at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
- March 20: V T20I at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
ODI Series
- March 23: I ODI at MCA Stadium, Pune
- March 26: II ODI at MCA Stadium, Pune
- March 28: III ODI at MCA Stadium, Pune