The India and West Indies Test series begins on October 4 in Rajkot.
The last time West Indies toured India was in 2013 and we saw the debuts of Rohit Sharma and Mohammad Shami in Test cricket. Rohit scored two centuries in his first two Tests and Shami picked a five-wicket haul on his debut. It also happened to be the last series of the illustrious career of the great Sachin Tendulkar.
This time too, India has decided to include three new Indian players in the Test squad. These three players are Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, and Mohammed Siraj, out of which atleast one will make their Test debut in the first Test at Rajkot.
Out of these three, Prithvi Shaw has already experienced the insides of the Indian dressing room, as he was a part of the Indian squad for the last two Tests against England. Siraj has already played a handful of T20I matches for India, but Mayank Agarwal will be having his first look at the Indian team dressing room culture.
Let’s have a finer look at the three new faces in the Indian Test squad
Mayank Agarwal
Agarwal came into prominence for his exploits for the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab. His best FC season came in 2017-18 Ranji Trophy, when he scored 1,160 runs and a total of 2,141 runs in a domestic year and even won the Madhav Rao Scindia award for being the Highest Run-Scorer In Ranji Trophy.
He has also played 70 List A matches scoring 3472 runs with 12 centuries and 14 fifties and a best of 176. Agarwal has been a prolific scorer for India A side as well and recently scored 90 against West Indies in the practice match for India President’s XI.
He was awaiting his chance for the India call-up since his bumper domestic season and even had the back of the fans. There was a disappointment when his name was not included in the Indian team to England, but now he has a chance to show off his skills on the international level.
Mohammed Siraj
Hyderabad’s Mohammed Siraj has already made his international debut for India in T20Is, playing three matches and picking up 3 wickets. Siraj had made his FC debut for Hyderabad in 2015 and came into notice for his bowling performances for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Indian Premier League.
Siraj has 97 wickets from 20 matches in FC cricket and 52 List A wickets from 27 matches. He recently was on a role for India A picking up 14 wickets against South Africa A including a 10-wicket haul and then picking 8/59 and 3/77 against Australia A in the unofficial Test match.
Siraj has pace and ability to extract bounce from the deadest of pitches, something that might come in handy during the series against West Indies where India plays two Tests in Rajkot and his hometown Hyderabad.
Prithvi Shaw
His first claim to fame was hitting 546 runs in a Harris Shield elite division match for Rizvi Springfield High School in 2013. He made his long-awaited FC debut for Mumbai in the finals of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy and celebrated it with a brilliant hundred and was adjudged Man of the match.
He then scored a century on his Duleep Trophy debut and equaled the feat of Sachin Tendulkar of scoring centuries in debut matches of Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy. He has played in IPL 2018 for Delhi Daredevils and became the joint youngest player to score an IPL fifty against KKR.
He has been scoring prolifically scoring 188 against WI A in England in an FC match, 136 against SA A and 129 against Railways in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19.
His exploits finally got him a call-up to the senior Indian team for the last two Tests against England in England but didn’t get to play. Now he has been included in the Indian squad for West Indies series and has a very good chance of making his Test debut for India.