Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel are back in the Indian squad for the first two home Tests against England. However, Mohammed Shami, who is recovering from an ankle injury, is a notable absentee.
Vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan make up the seam attack, while R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja make up the spin attack along with Kuldeep and Axar.
While Shami was optimistic about returning for the England Tests, the BCCI selectors and medical staff might have wanted to give him more rest as a precautionary measure. The 33-year-old fast bowler has not played any competitive cricket since the ODI World Cup final in November last year.
Dhruv Jurel, the Uttar Pradesh player, earned his first call-up to the Indian team, in any format, as a backup wicketkeeper to KL Rahul, who had kept wickets in both Tests in South Africa, and KS Bharat.
Ishan Kishan, who had taken a break from the two-match Test series in South Africa and the ongoing T20I series at home against Afghanistan, was also not part of this team. Avesh Khan, who was recently called up to India’s Test team in South Africa as Shami’s replacement, retained his place. The 27-year-old has played eight ODIs and 19 T20Is so far but has no limits in Test cricket.
However, Prasidh Krishna, who made his Test debut for Centurion, was not named in the team. The fast bowler had suffered a quadriceps injury on the first day of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy second round clash against Gujarat in Ahmedabad. Prasidh is currently looked after by the Karnataka team’s physiotherapist, but as a BCCI contract player, he can also connect with the India A support staff, who are also in Ahmedabad for the two-day match against the touring England Lions .
Jurel had recently scored a half-century for India A in a four-day first-class match against South Africa A in Benoni and is currently playing against the Lions in Ahmedabad. In total, he has played 15 first-class games and averages almost 47. His path to the top has not been easy. He was vice-captain of India Under-19 in the World Cup four years ago and more recently caught the eye in the IPL in 2023, scoring 152 runs at an average of 22 and a strike rate of 173 for the Rajasthan Royals .
Ashwin is on the brink of two major milestones in Test cricket. He is ten strikes away from 500 wickets in the format and five matches away from 100 Tests. The five-match series against England will begin in Hyderabad on January 25 and will be part of the World Test Championship (WTC). India is currently second in the WTC points table, behind defending champions Australia.
