IND vs WI 2018: Selection committee awaits Virat Kohli’s wrist injury report before announcing the Test squad

The first Test at Rajkot starts on October 4.

Indian Captain Virat Kohli | Getty

It is Indian Captain Virat Kohli's wrist-injury and a report on its details, which is making the BCCI All-India senior selection committee wait till they announce the squad to take on against the visiting West Indies side shortly. 

Five national selectors - MSK Prasad, Devang Gandhi, Sarandeep Singh, Jatin Paranjape and Gagan Khoda - were scheduled to name the side on Wednesday, September 26 but the squad has yet not been officially announced. Now though, according to the reports coming in, it is a medical report on Virat's wrist injury which basically delayed the selection process, and the squad is expected to be revealed on September 29. 

A source close to the matter told Hindustan Times, “There was an informal meeting on Wednesday among the selectors and the team will be picked after the MRI scan report comes in. Should be done by tonight,” 

India are due to play the men from the Caribbean across 2 Test matches, with the first Test at Rajkot starting October 4 followed by the second in Hyderabad beginning October 12. 

The series is expected to give an insight into India's assessment and their learnings from the 4-1 Pataudi series defeat in England and also reveal what are their plans for the winter tour of Australia, where India strives to retain the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

Keeping in line with this, it is highly likely that both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, having just played the Asia Cup in challenging conditions of United Arab Emirates, will be rested for the home Test series in order to importantly manage their workloads.

Also, it will be interesting to see whether selectors persist with Shikhar Dhawan or Prithvi Shaw finally make his debut at the highest level, with Mayank Agarwal already in queue for his place via prolific performances at the domestic as well as the 'A' level.  Mayank has just scored a very fine 90 against West Indies in the ongoing Board President's XI warm-up game. 

Meanwhile, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has passed the fitness Test and is likely to walk back in the main eleven unless the selectors decide to give other left field options like Shahbaz Nadeem and Yuzvendra Chahal a try, with Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav expected to be the other main tweakers. 

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 29 Sep, 2018

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