22-year young -old Dhruv Jurel got his maiden call as a backup wicketkeeping option as BCCI announced India’s squad for the first two Tests in England.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday evening announced a 16-man squad for the first two Tests against England which starts from January 25 onwards, 22-year-old utter Pradesh wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel got his first call-up as a backup wicketkeeping option as Ishan Kishan, who had reportedly taken a break from cricket due to his mental health issue, has not been named.
The announced squad also does not include senior fast bowler Mohammed Shami as he continues to recover from the ankle injury he incurred during the 2023 ODI World Cup campaign in November last year. He was optimistic about returning to the Test squad, but the selectors probably wanted him to take further rest as a precautionary move ahead of the final stages of the series against England.
After Shami, the fast-bowling line-up does not have Prasidh Krishna, who played in both games in the Test series in South Africa, he got just two wickets for 130 runs. It was earlier reported on Friday that the pacer had picked up a quadriceps injury on Day 1 of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy clash against Gujarat in Ahmedabad.
After them, fast young bowler Avesh Khan has retained his place in the squad. On the back of his performance for India A during the South Africa tour, he was added to the main squad ahead of the match in Cape Town. Avesh hence joins the likes of vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mukesh Kumar to form a familiar-looking strong pace attack for India while the spin combination comprises Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.
The main surprise in the squad was the addition of Uttar Pradesh cricketer Jurel, who will be a backup wicketkeeper to KL Rahul or Ishan Kissan, who kept wickets in both the match of the Test series in South Africa and KS Bharat. The youngster was a part of the India A team that played two matches against their South African counterparts in December last year. Where Jurel scored 69 in the second match at Benoni and in the first-round group game of the Ranji Trophy, he scored 63 for Uttar Pradesh against Kerala. The 22-year-old, who made his First-Class debut last year against Vidarbha, has so far made 790 runs from 15 matches at an average of 46 with a hundred and five fifties in domestic cricket.
This will be India’s third assignment in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle and it will be first at home. They had earlier won the two-match series in West Indies 1-0 after the second game was drawn, while they held hosts South Africa to a 1-1 draw in a two-match series earlier this year.
Here is India’s squad for first two Tests vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan.
