India vs England 2021: BCCI announces the Official Test Squad

Ravindra Jadeja, the major player missing as we look at the official Team India squad for the 2021 Home Test series vs England. 

After a historic and probably the best series victory for Team India in an overseas tour, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the official squad for the first two Tests for the home series vs England. Surprisingly, in view of COVID-19, BCCI has named a 18-member squad instead of the regular 16-member squad. 

The squad sees a lot of changes if we compare them with the first-choice squad and the squad that toured Australia. So, who is in and who is out? Let’s look at all the changes and the actual Team India squad for the 2021 Home Test Series vs England. 

Key Changes:

The team sees 4 major with 4 first-choice players missing the series on account of injury. The 4 major players who are missing include Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, and Hanuma Vihari. However, KL Rahul, who was left out of the squad on account of injury is back with the team as an opener-middle-order player. 

New Comers:

The team also sees two new names in the form of Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel. While it is yet to be seen if Hardik is included as an all-rounder or a pure batsman, Axar is definitely expected to play the role of a bowling all-rounder. Meanwhile, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar have been retained in the squad. 

Dropped:

While the team sees a few names, the out-of-form Prithvi Shaw has been left out of the squad. That means, Team now has 4 openers in the form of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, and KL Rahul. The team has also left out T Natarajan, who looked impressive in his debut Test. However, the reason to leave Natarajan out is not form but squad limitations. 

Here’s the official squad announcement:

India vs England 2021: Team India’s Official Test Squad for first Two Tests: 

Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rishabh Pant (WK), Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar & Wriddhiman Saha (WK).

Batsmen	Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Rishabh Pant (WK), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli (C) & Wriddhiman Saha (WK)
All-rounders	Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin & Washington Sundar
Bowlers	Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj & Shardul Thakur

India vs England 2021 Test Series Schedule:

1. Chennai (Feb 5-9, 2021)
2. Chennai (Feb 13-17, 2021)
3. Ahmedabad (Feb 24-28, 2021)
4. Ahmedabad (Mar 4-8, 2021)

The Committee also picked five net bowlers and five players as standbys.

Net Bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar

Standby players: KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Priyank Panchal

Thanks for reading! Are you happy with Team India’s squad for the Test series vs England? Please email your comments to business@cricalytics.com

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