The national selection committee on Thursday decided to rest Virat Kohli for the T20Is against Bangladesh. In his absence, Rohit Sharma will lead the side.
In what could be his last assignment as the chairman of the national selection committee, MSK Prasad, made it clear that the focus will be on trying out the young guns.
And that was evident as the selectors decided to bring in Kerala stumper Sanju Samson -- who has been quite successful in the domestic circuit -- along with Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube.
“It is important to have all-rounders in the T20s,” Prasad said, making it clear that it is with focus that the selectors had initially zeroed in on Hardik Pandya.
But with Pandya injured, the second option was Vijay Shankar. But now, the focus has shifted to young Dube.
“He had a bit of edge over Vijay Shankar. His performance against West Indies A and South Africa was phenomenal. I am sure he will do well,” Prasad said.
Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur made a surprise entry as the first choice, Navdeep Saini, suffered an injury and was unavailable for the series. “It’s nothing major. But he won’t be available,” Prasad said.
The committee had a long meeting with the new Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief, Sourav Ganguly, and also with Kohli and Rohit.
“It is good to have a cricketer at the helm and he also pointed a few of his observations and we will take note of that,” Prasad said about the meeting with Ganguly.
After taking charge on Wednesday, Ganguly had categorically said that in his regime, Kohli is the ‘most important person’ in the Indian cricket team and the Board will back him to the hilt.
And that was evident as the selectors did not tweak the Test squad. It remained similar to the side which recently defeated South Africa 3-0.
Despite Wriddhiman Saha picking up an injury, the selectors decided to continue with him. However, Shahbaz Nadeem -- who made his debut in the third Test against South Africa -- has been left out of the Test squad, with the selectors preferring Kuldeep Yadav. Youngster Shubman Gill also featured in the list.
The Squads:
T20Is
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur.
Test
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant
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