NEW DELHI, India, CMC – Shikhar Dhawan’s disastrous tour of England came back to haunt him as he was dropped for the upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies.
On the other hand, the pair of Mayank Agarwal and Mohammed Siraj have been rewarded for their domestic exploits and have earned their maiden India-callup.
The 32-year-old Dhawan, who has played 34 Tests for India, had a forgettable outing during the Test series against England, scoring just 162 runs in eight innings.
Karun Nair who did not play a single Test match in England was also surprisingly axed with Hanuma Vihari named as his replacement.
Agarwal was chosen on the basis of him being the top scorer in the last Ranji Trophy Season where he scored 1160 runs in eight matches.
Pacer Siraj was picked after he performed for India A in the recently concluded quadrangular series featuring Australia A and South Africa A, where he recorded the brilliant figures of 8-59 in one of the games.
The selectors have also decided to rest Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah having taken into account their heavy workload over the past months, leaving Mohammed Sami to lead the pace attack.
Prithvi Shaw has retained his place in the side having not been selected in the final two Tests in England.
“Taking stock of the recent workload, the selectors have decided to rest Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Both Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya were not considered for selection, as they are yet to recover from their injuries,” BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a statement.
The first Test will be played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot from October 4 to 8, followed by the second match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad from October 12 to 16.
Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.
