There are certain chances that Team India will be playing with the same XI for the second Test against West Indies starting Friday in Hyderabad as the BCCI tweeted the same 12-man squad as it had done for the Rajkot game. Uncapped fast bowler Shardul Thakur is the 12th man listed, which means that there will be no debut for Mayank Agarwal or Mohammed Siraj or a chance for Hanuma Vihari.
India also decided to retain their deputy skipper Ajinkya Rahane in the team, despite him being criticized for his recent form. However, there have also been criticisms over the form of KL Rahul, who was dismissed for a duck in the first over and now he has also been included in the squad for the second Test, despite India having the option to give Mayank Agarwal his Test debut.
In the first Test, Indian completely outplayed West Indies as they defeated them by a huge margin of an innings and 272 runs and registered their biggest ever win with the 18-year-old debutant, Prithvi Shaw, named Man of the Match for his century.
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The real challenge for the Virat Kohli and his men doesn’t lie in defeating West Indies, who lost the first Test at Rajkot by a record margin but to guard themselves against any complacency that tends to creep in during victories at home, which can also lead into any false sense of security. After all, they will be locking horns with Australia in their own backyard after this.
Team India for the 2nd Test against Windies at Hyderabad 🇮🇳 #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/QMgNm6jf4Q
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 11, 2018
India has lost six and won four out of 10 Tests in 2018, but they looked like a clinical unit at Rajkot which a world No 1 team is expected to. However, such traits were far from visible for the majority of tours to South Africa and England, and with an impending Australian tour, the team would be expected to stick with its new benchmarks.
India’s 12-man squad for the Hyderabad Test: Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur
