ICC World Test Championship 2019: India Squad for The West Indies Series

AS the ICC Cricket World Cup has done and dusted, fans have geared up for the next series. To engage more people in the longer format of the game, the International Cricket Council (ICC) have decided to start championship in Tests as well and the ICC World Test Championship are all set to begin from August 1.

The championship will run for the two years where nine top-ranked teams will play each other in the home and away series. After all the series, the two team who will have more points, play the final. The final will take place in 2021. The ICC World Test Championship will start with the Ashes where the arch-rivals England and Australia will play the series. However, alongside them, India will also begin their tournament against West Indies from 3rd August in Florida.

Recently, BCCI announced the India squad for the upcoming series. Let’s have a look at the Tests squad:

Openers:

Although India have different openers in the longer format than the limited-overs. KL Rahul is the man who opens for India in Tests for the last couple of years. Alongside Rahul, Mayank Agarwal is expected to open the innings as Shikhar Dhawan has been dropped from the Test squad and Murli Vijay, who was one of the openers of India, couldn’t find his place in the squad.

Middle Orders:

India’s middle-orders are pretty strong with the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, captain Virat Kohli, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma etc. While Pujara is considered as one of the finest players in the longer format, Virat Kohli too has been in great form. From 68 matches, Pujara has more than 5,000 runs in his name whereas Kohli amassed more than 6,500 runs from 77 matches.

Along with them, Rahane is also a great Test player who has nearly 4,000 runs from 56 matches. Even Hanuma Vihari has also impressed with the bat in his 4 matches. Even Rohit Sharma is also there who bats in the middle order in the longer format of the game.

Wicket-keepers:

Wriddhiman Saha has returned in the Test squad after more than a year. Along with him, Risabh Pant is also in the squad. Pant has been improving day by day while Saha will be played after a long gap. He last played against South Africa in Cape Town in January 2018. After that, he was ruled out with a shoulder injury and later underwent surgery in the last August.

Bowlers:

Although Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been dropped from the Tests squad, India have four ace battery in the form of Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav. Even experienced spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is also back in the hut after a long time. Along with him, the spin department will have the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja as well.

It will be interesting to see how India team perform in the ICC World Test Championship after their surprising defeat in the ICC World Cup.

Squad:

Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (WK) Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.