No changes in India squad for remaining Tests, out-of-form KL Rahul retained
The Hindu
Seasoned left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat is back in the team for the remaining two Test matches
The Indian selection committee on February 19, 2023 retained the team for the third and fourth Tests against Australia, keeping faith in KL Rahul despite his repeated failures.
Seasoned left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat, who was part of the squad for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but was released to represent Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy final against Bengal, is back in the team for the remaining two matches.
Fresh from leading Saurashtra to a Ranji Trophy title triumph, Unadkat has also made a comeback to the ODI squad for the limited overs series that will take place after the Test rubber.
Speedster Jasprit Bumrah, who has been out of action at the international level since September 2022 due to back issues, and missed the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh tour, and the home series versus Sri Lanka and New Zealand, is not part of either the Test or the ODI team and will return to play during the IPL.
Rohit will be unavailable for the first ODI due to family commitments and Hardik Pandya will lead the side in the match.
As far as the out-of-form Rahul is concerned, head coach Rahul Dravid said that the team management would like to give him a longer run.
Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
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