On Friday, January 5, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made the announcement for the Test squad of the India National Cricket Team for the two Tests of the upcoming five-match series against the England National Cricket Team.
The England tour of India 2024 consists of a five-match Test series. The high-profile series will be played across three months – January, February, and March – in India.
The first Test match will be played from January 25 to 29 at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium and the second Test will be held from February 2 to 6 at Visakhapatnam’s Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.
The teams will then travel to Rajkot for the third Test, which will be played from February 15 to 19 at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium before moving to Ranchi for the fourth Test, which will be hosted by JSCA International Stadium Complex from February 23 to 27. The fifth and final Test match of the series will begin on March 7 and will be hosted by Dharamsala’s Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.
India Announce Squad For England Test Series
The India National Cricket Team Test squad will be led by Rohit Sharma and it has some familiar faces on the side in Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Shubman Gill.
The spin department of the side will be once again led by the veterans Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. In the pace department, it will be Jasprit Bumrah, who will serve as the leader of the pack. He recently won the Player of the Series award in the two-match Test series against South Africa, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Ishan Kishan hasn’t been included and Dhruv Jurel has received his maiden Test call-up. Notably, Kishan has been out of action since withdrawing his name from the Test series against South Africa in December.
Reports suggested that BCCI would take disciplinary against Kishan, but later Rahul Dravid rubbished those reports. The head coach said that Kishan will be back in the team once he plays domestic cricket and makes himself available for selection. Also, Mohammed Shami hasn’t been included as he is yet to recover from his injury.
Meanwhile, England have also announced a 16-member squad for five-Test tour of India. The ECB has picked three uncapped players – Gus Atkinson, Tom Hartley, and Shoaib Bashir – in the squad for the Test series. The team will be led by Ben Stokes and they will look forward to continuing their ‘Bazball’ philosophy in the series.
The last time England were in India in 2021, they were hammered by 3-1 in a 4-match series. While the last Test series between the teams ended in a 2-2 draw in 2021-22.
Here’s India’s Complete Squad For First Two Tests vs England:
Rohit Sharma (C ), S Gill, Y Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, S Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan.
? NEWS ?#TeamIndia‘s squad for the first two Tests against England announced ?
Rohit Sharma (C ), S Gill, Y Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, S Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit…
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 12, 2024
