Cricket: Shubman Gill to Lead Team India for Test Series against West Indies; Ravindra Jadeja is vice-captain; 2 new players also included
The Indian cricket team for the upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies has been announced. Shubman Gill will be the captain, and Ravindra Jadeja will be the vice-captain. Rishabh Pant, the usual vice-captain, is injured and not fully recovered. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the team at a press conference in Dubai.
The first Test will take place in Ahmadabad starting October 2, and the second Test will be in Delhi from October 10.
Dhruv Jurel will be the main wicket-keeper
Dhruv Jurel will be the main wicket-keeper for this series, with N. Jagadeesan as a backup. New players Nitish Reddy and Devdutt Padikkal have also been included in the squad.
Padikkal recently came into the limelight after his 150-run innings against Australia A. He batted at number 3 in the Perth Test against Australia last year, where he scored 0 and 25. Nitish has played seven Tests and can play a key role as an all-rounder.
The West Indies are returning to India for a Test series after seven years.
India are third in WTC points table
Having earned 28 out of the maximum of 60 available points for five Tests, India are third in the WTC points table, with 46.67 percentage points. West Indies are in sixth place, having lost all three of their matches so far.
After the terrible loss to New Zealand, the selectors have retained the core of the team for Shubman Gill's first home series. Agarkar said that they don't want to experiment as every point in the WTC table counts.
Squad: Shubman Gill (c), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), N. Jagadeesan (wk), Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna