The Indian national cricket team has named its squad for the first two test matches against England in the latter's tour of India 2024. The games will be played in late January and early February, with the rest of the series soldiering on until the Indian Premier League 2024 window in March. (More Cricket News)
Unsurprisingly, Rohit Sharma headlines the squad as the captain, with Jasprit Bumrah deputising for his Mumbai Indians teammate. Virat Kohli takes his place beside Sharma and Bumrah in the squad but there is no space for Ishan Kishan, who has been left out of the roster despite India picking three wicket-keepers. Of those three, KL Rahul, KS Bharat, and Dhruv Jurel, Rahul is the likeliest to stand behind the wickets for the first two games in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, respectively.
India has a plethora of spin options available for selection for the first two tests, with Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav making up a strong quartet. Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, and Bumrah make up the pace attack in the continued absence of recent Arjuna Awardee Mohammed Shami.
India are currently embroiled in a three-game T20 Internationals series with Afghanistan, with the mini-tournament likely to be the Men in Blue's last foray into the format before the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies and the United States of America this summer.
India vs England, Test Series, Squad (For Games 1 and 2):
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
