New Delhi: The Indian cricket board (BCCI) announced a 15-man squad for the much-anticipated World Test Championship 2021-23 final on Tuesday, Apriul 25. Rohit Sharma will lead a 15-man squad against Australia in the WTC final, which will be played from June 7 to 11 at the Oval in London.
Veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane returns to the squad after a series of fine performances in domestic cricket and the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. All-rounder Shardul Thakur has also been picked in the 15-man squad.
Rahane has returned to the Indian side after 15 months. He last featured in the South Africa Test series in January 2022. Rahane’s form for CSK in IPL, albeit in an entirely different format, is believed to be the biggest reason behind his comeback. The other major reason is the absence of middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant.
Iyer has recently undergone back surgery and is expected to be out of action for some time. Pant, on other hand, has started his slow recovery process after suffering a car accident in December last year.
Rahane has been in stellar form in this IPL. He has scored 209 runs in just five innings for CSK at a staggering strike rate of 199.05 which is 62 more than his previous best in 2019.
Apart from Rahane, senior pro KL Rahul has also made it to the 15-man squad after being stripped of vice-captaincy and a place in the squad in the final two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. Rahul, however, is unlikely to be considered as an opener. He instead, can don the gloves and bat in the middle-order as designated keeper-batter KS Bharat may not find a place in the XI due to his vulnerabilities with the bat.
INDIA SQUAD FOR WTC FINAL
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
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