Indian squad announced for India v Sri Lanka Test series 2015:
Indian squad announced for India v Sri Lanka Test series 2015 was announced and leg-spinner Amit Mishra, 32 made a comeback to the Indian Test squad after a period of 4 years. He replaced Karn Sharma, who has been in the Test squad for Australia series earlier this year and to the Bangladesh tour.
Mishra who last played a Test for India was in 2011, against England where he gave 170 runs in 38 overs in the Test inning. He had played 2 Tests on the tour and took 3 wickets at an average of 106. Mishra’s selection is the only change to the Indian squad.
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The chairman of the selection committee, Sandeep Patil said that “If you remember, even last year Amit Mishra was in the reserves [for the West Indies series]. The final authority of picking the XI is the role of the captain and the team management. Why A was not played and why B was picked it is not what we get into. Looking at the conditions, we have picked him for this SL tour.”
Opener KL Rahul who missed the Bangladesh Test due to dengue gives India the option of choosing from 3 openers since his replacement Shikhar Dhawan scored a brilliant hundred in the Test.
Also when asked about not choosing any back up wicket keeper for Wriddhiman Saha, Sandeep Patil replied, “We have a standby wicketkeeper we have nominated, secretary and selectors, we are aware who is the wicketkeeper nominated if there is injury on the SL tour.”
He also added that “We have backed him looking at his performance in domestic cricket. The kind of experience he carries. You immediately cannot replace someone like Dhoni and come in and deliver the results. But we certainly feel that Wriddhiman is the right option and looking at his ability in batting as well, he should strike a good balance.” This was the response of the chairman of the selectors, Sandeep Patil on being asked about the batting prowess of Saha and whether they had thought of sending some other wicket-keeper in place of him, owing to his previous batting outings.
Pacer Mohd. Shami and Karn Sharma were not considered for selection since Shami is still recovering from the knee surgery and Karn Sharma broke his finger before India’s tour of Zimbabwe in July. Many have seen the selection of Amit Mishra as a backward step, as it portrays the lack of spinning options and reserves in Indian domestic cricket.
BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur confirmed that Virat Kohli will play in the second unofficial Test between India A and Australia in Chennai from July 29-31. But he also said that Chetestwar Pujara will still remain the captain of the India A side.
“Virat Kohli had requested the selection committee for some match practice and wanted to play a game against Australia A,” Thakur said.
Indian squad announced for India v Sri Lanka Test series 2015:
Virat Kohli (C), Varun Aaron, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Rohit Sharma, M Vijay, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul
