Mayank, Siraj Receive Maiden Call-up; Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah Rested For Windies Test

Mayank Agarwal's stars finally decide to shine as he received his maiden call-up for 2-match Test series against West Indies. After been ignored many times, he has been included in 15-man squad while Mohammed Siraj also rewarded his fine form for the first time in India's Test squad.

The selectors announced the squad on Saturday, September 29. Virat Kohli returned in the squad as captain while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested for the 2-match series to keep them afresh for Australia tour starting this November. Opener Murli Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan haven't been included after their poor run in England.



27-year old, Karnataka's opener Mayank Agarwal has been in form of his life. He scored 1160 runs in eight Ranji Trophy games last season at an average of 105.45, with five hundred, two fifties and a highest of 304*. He extends his rich form against England Lions as well as against Australia A and South Africa A in August-September. He continued his form into the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy where he was the leading run scorer.

In-form batsman, Prithvi Shaw finds himself retained his spot from the last two Test of England series. He can be the first choice to open with KL Rahul. On the other hand the new member in the Test squad, Siraj has been consistent with his performances for India A in recent months, picking up 40 wickets in his last five first-class games. After a rich haul of 15 wickets in the first-class games in England, he followed it up with 14 wickets in the two four-day games against South Africa A, and 11 against Australia A in one game.

Rishabh Pant who was the part of India's squad against England will be the first choice as wicket-keeper as Dinesh Karthik has been left out from the Windies series. Pant was the chief-architect with KL Rahul of India's fightback with his maiden century in the last Test against England where the duo nearly pulled off a victory.



India will be without the service of their only seam all-rounder Hardik Pandya who got his back injury during the match against Pakistan in the Asia Cup. Ishant Sharma was also not considered for the series owing to an injury while Kuldeep Yadav back in the team after he's been left from last two England Test. The rest of the squad remained same.

The two-Test series gets underway from October 4 in Rajkot, while the second Test will be played from October 12 in Hyderabad, followed by five ODIs and three T20Is.

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.

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