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Virat Kohli will play only the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar series and return to India.
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Rohit Sharma rested for T20I and ODI series against Australia to regain full fitness.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced India’s revised Test squad for the upcoming tour of Australia. The All India Selection Committee met on Sunday to take a call on certain players who were selected or not selected last month while naming the squad. After so many talks over Rohit Sharma’s injury, the selectors have added him in the Test squad and rested him for the limited-overs series to regain full fitness.
In another development, captain Virat Kohli has been granted paternity leave, and he will return to India after the first of the four-match Test series. Virat and his wife Anushka Sharma are expecting the birth of their first child in early January while the first Test (day-night) between Australia and India is scheduled to be played from December 17 to December 21 in Adelaide.
“At the selection committee meeting held on October 26, 2020, Mr Virat Kohli had informed the BCCI about his plans to return to India after the first Test in Adelaide. The BCCI has granted paternity leave to the Indian captain. He will return after the first Test against Australia in Adelaide,” BCCI’s statement read in a release.
As far as senior fast bowler Ishant Sharma is concerned, he continues to recover and will be added to the Test squad after regaining full fitness.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha also sustained a hamstring injury recently and couldn’t play in the Qualifier 2 for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2020. A call on his availability will be taken later on. Youngster Kamlesh Nagarkoti has been selected as the extra bowler for the tour Down Under. However, he will not be travelling with the squad now as the BCCI medical team is looking into his workload management.
Here is India’s revised Test squad:
Virat Kohli (available for the first Test), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj.