Summary
- The BCCI has named its 15 man squad for the World Test Championship
- India will play Australia for the World Test Championship from June 7 – 11
- The biggest surprise is the return of former vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane
The World Test Championship (WTC) is set to take place from June 7 to 11 in England.
The top two teams in the ICC Test Rankings are India and Australia and they will do battle at The Oval to see who will be crowned World Test Champions.
This is the second time that World Test Championship will take place. India also made it to the first ever WTC final when they played New Zealand but lost. They will look to make amends but have an even bigger test as they take on Australia.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced this week a 15 member squad for the World Test Championship. India has continued to stick with a tried and tested squad for test matches and the only surprise in the 15 member squad was the return of former vice-captain and middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane.
Squad: Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav and Rohit Sharma (Captain).
Rohit Sharma is fit and will continue to captain the test side and see if he can win his first ICC World Cup for Team India. India will continue to miss the services of fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah who is still out due to injury and wicket-keeper Rishab Pant who is recovering from a car accident.
The big decision that India will have to make is whether they play KL Rahul has a batsman and wicketkeeper and leave out KS Bharat or do they drop KL Rahul and play KS Bharat and Ajinkya Rahane.
Australia will have the edge over India as they will be in England ahead of time preparing to play a 5 match Ashes series against England. Australia will be better prepared to handle English conditions which offer more swing and bounce and India will be underprepared as they would have just wrapped up the 2023 IPL season and will need time to adjust from T20 to Test cricket!
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