Sports Desk, 9th September: India has unveiled its 16-man squad for the opening Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh, starting on September 19. The squad sees the notable return of wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant after nearly 20 months.
Pant, who last played a Test in December 2022, has recently shown form in the Duleep Trophy 2024 and is set to make his return to red-ball cricket. His last Test appearance was also against Bangladesh, where India secured a victory in Mirpur before his car accident in late 2022.
KL Rahul returns to the squad as a pure batter for the first Test, while Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja rejoin the team after missing the Duleep Trophy’s first match. There is also a first call-up for Yash Dayal, though Shreyas Iyer is absent from the squad.
Kohli, who missed the five-Test series against England earlier this year, is back in the team. The first Test will take place at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai.
Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.