Big News: Selectors bolster bowling lineup with young pacer for last Test against New Zealand

22-year-old pacer Harshit Rana who bagged a fifer and scored a half-century against Assam in the recent Ranji Trophy 2024-25 clash has been added to India's Test squad for the third and final Test of the series against New Zealand. 

Last week, Rana received his maiden Test call-up as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named 18-member Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia. 

India have three pacers in the current Test squad – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep. After Siraj’s lacklustre performance in the Bengaluru Test, Akash was added to the squad but he remained wicketless in the first innings. In the second innings, he wasn’t handed the ball by skipper Rohit Sharma. Also, Bumrah remained wicketless in the Pune Test as well. 

As per reports, Rana was backed by head coach Gautam Gambhir to be picked for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

It will be interesting to see whether Rana replaces Deep in the side or the team management decides to go with two spinners in the clash at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai starting on November 1.

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Rana’s IPL numbers 

The tall pacer was one of the top performers for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) bagging 19 wickets from 13 games at an average of 20.15. On the back of his IPL performances, he was picked in squads for limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. However, he did not make his ODI and T20I debut. 

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India's WTC qualification scenario

The third Test of the series is crucial for India as far as World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final qualification is concerned. India need four wins from their remaining six Tests in the current cycle. A win will improve their chances of making it to the third consecutive WTC final ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 next month. 

India’s updated Test squad for the third Test –

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj