The veteran Indian batter, Ajinkya Rahane returned to the Indian team after his excellent performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 as BCCI announced a 15-member Indian squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia to be played at The Oval in England from June 7, 2023. The side also sees the back of KL Rahul after he was dropped from the last couple of Tests of the Australia series.
Rahane has returned to the Indian Test team after a gap of more than one year. He last featured in the South Africa Test series in January 2022. Rahane’s form for CSK in IPL, albeit in an entirely different format, is believed to be the biggest reason behind his comeback. The other crucial reason is the absence of middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer and wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant.
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Iyer has recently undergone back surgery and will be missing competitive cricket for some time. Pant, on other hand, has started his slow recovery process after suffering a car accident in December 2022. Rahane has been in stellar form in this IPL. He has scored 209 runs in just five innings for CSK at a staggering strike rate of 199.05 which is 62 more than his previous best in 2019.
🚨 NEWS 🚨#TeamIndia squad for ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final announced.
Details 🔽 #WTC23 https://t.co/sz7F5ByfiU pic.twitter.com/KIcH530rOL
— BCCI (@BCCI) April 25, 2023
Apart from Rahane, KL Rahul has also been included in the 15-member squad after being stripped of deputy skipper and a place in the squad in the final two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. However, Rahul is unlikely to be considered an opener. He instead, can be seen donning the gloves and bat in the middle-order as designated keeper-batter KS Bharat may not find a place in the XI due to his vulnerabilities with the bat.
In English conditions, where the ball is expected to swing for the whole day, the team management has fallen back on the experience of Rahul and Rahane.
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The spin-bowling all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Axar Patel have secured their places in the squad. It is, however, unlikely that the three of them will play together. In fact, if the conditions are favorable fast bowlers could opt for Shardul Thakur as the fourth pacer, which will mean only one among Ashwin, Jadeja or Axar play as a spinner.
India’s Test squad WTC final: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
