Board of Control for Cricket in India on September 25 announced India’s 15-member squad for the two-Test series at home against West Indies starting October 2. As reported earlier, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is not a part of the squad as he is yet to recover from the fracture on right foot sustained during the fourth Test of the series against England in Manchester. Wicketkeeper-batter Narayan Jagadeesan has retained his place in the squad. Also, Ravindra Jadeja has been named vice-captain.
Pacers Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Anshul Kamboj, batters Karun Nair, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shardul Thakur have been dropped from the squad. Devdutt Padikkal has replaced Nair in the side whereas Axar Patel has replaced Thakur in spin-friendly conditions.
Why Nair was dropped?
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that they expected more from Nair on the England tour and unfortunately can't give everyone a long rope. On Easwaran's exclusion, he said that there is no need for a back-up opener in a home tour and he will be flown in if the need arises.
Why Kishan did not get recalled?
As Jagadeesan was picked ahead of Ishan Kishan as back-up wicketkeeper-batter, Agarkar said that the latter needs to play more wicket to make comeback. Jagadeesan received his maiden call-up when Pant got injured. Kishan has been named in Rest of India's squad to get some gate time. He wasn't picked for Australia A multi-day series as he was yet to regain full fitness.
The Test series against the Roston Chase-led side will begin on October 2 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. The second Test will be hosted at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. The second Test will commence on October 10.
India Test squad for West Indies Test series -
Shubman Gill (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav.