India - England Series
India announce squad against England Tests as Kohli returns
||CF Desk||
The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) on Tuesday announced an 18-member squad for the first two Test matches against England. Regular captain Virat Kohli returned to the squad after missing out the last three Test matches in Australia as he was on paternity leave.
The fast bowling allrounder Hardik Pandya and Ishant Sharma have returned to the squad while Axar Patel has also earned the Test call.
The strong squad includes most of the faces that were part of India's scintillating series win on Tuesday against Australia in Brisbane. Prithvi Shaw and Navdeep Saini, who were part of the squad in Australia, have been axed.
KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar have been named four stand-byes who will be inducted into the squad in case of anyone from the main squad was to be replaced.
Chennai will host the first two Tests of the four-match Test series against England. The first Test will begin on February 5 while the second Test will be played from February 13. But the team is likely to gather on 27 January to follow the quarantine. Ahmedabad will host the last two Tests. After which, India and England will play limited-overs leg.
Squad
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Jasprit Burmah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel.