BCCI announces updated squad for India’s opening Test against Bangladesh

BCCI was forced to make a handful of changes to the Indian squad for the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh after Skipper Rohit Sharma was forced out due to a thumb injury while Mohammed Shami failed to recover in time for the tour. To add to India’s woes, they already lost Jadeja ahead of the series as the all-rounder is still going through his rehab.

Navdeep Saini and Saurabh Kumar were announced as the replacements for Shami and Jadeja for the first Test of the series while Abhimanyu Easwaran was summoned to the national side after a decent outing in the recently concluded First-Class matches against Bangladesh A.

In the absence of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul will be leading the Indian men in Bangladesh in the opening Test match. Pujara was handed over the vice-captaincy of the side. In a surprise call-up, Jaydev Unadkat made a return to the national side for a Test match after a staggering gap of 11 years.

Also sharing an update on Rohit Sharma’s thumb injury, BCCI said that the Indian captain has met a specialist in Mumbai and has been advised to rest for a while. A call on his availability in the second Test will be taken at a later stage.

Updated Indian squad for the first Test: KL Rahul (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat