File photo of Rohit Sharma (left) with Virat Kohli.
India’s newly appointed T20 captain Rohit Sharma It is set to be rested from the two-match Test series against New Zealand, while Virat Kohli Will miss the opening match as “mentally and physically exhausted” Team India gets down to workload management during home assignments.
vice captain Ajinkya Rahane Will lead the team in the opening Test in Kanpur as Kohli extends his break after being ruled out of the three-match T20I series starting November 17 in Jaipur.
A reliable source in the BCCI revealed that the squad has been finalized after the selection committee meeting on Thursday but a formal announcement is yet to be made. The other veteran wicketkeeper-batsman to have been ruled out of both the Tests in Kanpur and Mumbai is Rishabh.
Pant, and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah And Mohammed Shami, Rohit will take this break after leading the team in the T20I series. Tests are to start from November 25 in Kanpur.
Kohli will be back for the second match in Mumbai from December 3. The Indian Test and ODI captain has spoken at length about bubble fatigue and how it is taking a toll on players mentally.
In the absence of Pant Wriddhiman Co: KS Bharat will take over the wicket-keeping duties while serving as the second keeper of the series. Bharat, 28, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, has played only in IPL, signed up by Royal Challengers Bangalore this year.
He was among the five standby players for the home Test series against England this year. The rest of the squad includes the usual suspects with routine tests like Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara And Mayank Agarwal Looking for your way as expected.
New Support Staff Check In
As expected, Paras Mhambrey will join the team as the new bowling coach in place of Bharat Arun, whose tenure ended with India’s campaign in the T20 World Cup. Arun and head coach Ravi Shastri’s tenure came to a halt with the team’s last group stage match against Namibia.
Mhambrey is close to new head coach Rahul Dravid and was part of the support staff during India’s tour of Sri Lanka in July this year, where Dravid served as head coach.
He has been retained as batting coach after Vikram Rathour reapplied, while T Dileep is the new fielding coach. It is learned that Dravid wanted Abhay Sharma to be the fielding coach, but the Cricket Advisory Committee has gone with Dileep, who traveled with the Indian team during their tour of Sri Lanka in July.
The 39-year-old was the fielding coach of the Hyderabad team and had earlier worked with the India A team as well.
Probable squad for Test series against New Zealand:
Ajinkya Rahane (captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, KS bharath (wk), Ravindra Jadeja,
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