MUMBAI, India (AP) — No. 1-ranked test allrounder Ravindra Jadeja has replaced injured Rishabh Pant as India vice-captain in a squad packed with spinners for the home series against West Indies.
The first test starts on Oct. 2 in Ahmedabad and the second from Oct. 10 in New Delhi.
Jadeja played a stellar role with the bat in India’s 2-2 draw in England, where he scored 516 runs across the five tests at an average of 86. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant continues to recover from a foot injury sustained in England.
Dhruv Jurel will be the first-choice keeper-batter in Pant’s absence, as he was in England. Narayan Jagadeesan is the reserve.
Shubman Gill will captain his second series for India and first at home.
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was included despite workload concerns. He’s at the Asia Cup, where India has reached the final on Sunday. The first test starts four days later.
The other pace options were Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna.
Jadeja leads a spin quartet including left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, and spin allrounders Washington Sundar and Axar Patel.
Allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has recovered from a knee injury in the England series.
Top-order batter Karun Nair was dropped after a mediocre series in England. Nair scored 205 runs at an average of 25.62 with one half-century across four tests. Sai Sudharsan, 10 years younger than Nair at 23, scored 140 runs in three tests at average of 23.33 but remains.
Devdutt Padikkal missed the England tour owing to a hamstring injury but has been picked as a reserve opener/middle-order batter. His second and last test was in Australia in November. His 150 runs for India A against Australia A in Lucknow last week helped to persuade the selectors.
The series is India’s first at home since the stunning 3-0 loss to New Zealand last November. Since then, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin have retired.
“The New Zealand home series was a wake-up call,” India chief selector Ajit Agarkar said. “All (World Test Championship) series are critical and we want to get as many points as possible, particularly at home. We don’t want what happened in the New Zealand series to be repeated.”
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India: Shubman Gill (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Narayan Jagadeesan, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
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