The newly formed BCCI selection will get together to pick the Indian squad for the upcoming four-Test series against England in February 2021.
The Chetan Sharma headed panel will meet on January 19 at 5 pm IST via Zoom call and will also feature regular captain Virat Kohli.
The Indian team has done amazingly well on the Australia tour and the job for the selectors is easy. But there are a few players’ whose fitness is in doubt.
Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari, the two presumed regulars in Tests, are out of contention because of injuries. Also unavailable reportedly are Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav, who would have walked into the squad.
However in a good news for the selectors Sunil Joshi, Debasis Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and Abey Kuruvilla, two other Test regulars R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah were seen bowling during practice session at the Gabba.
The duo are not playing the Brisbane Test as Ashwin battled with bad back to bat India to a draw in Sydney; while Bumrah suffered a strain to his abdominal muscle, forcing India to hand a debut to T Natarajan and Washington Sundar in their places.
The BCCI shared a video of them bowling on its Twitter account with caption reading, “.@Jaspritbumrah93 & @ashwinravi99 were seen getting into the groove at The Gabba earlier in the day. Seems like the warm-up for #INDvENG is already underway #TeamIndia”
All the selectors, barring Harvinder who is in Australia, are watching the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament at different centres. During an informal meeting 10 days back, the selectors were told to keep an eye on the first-class players in the Mushtaq Ali tournament.
The first two Tests of the series will be played in Chennai from February 5-9 and 13-17 respectively. And the next two Tests will be played in Ahmedabad on Feb 24 and March 4 respectively.
The England team will arrive in India in two batches. The team playing in Sri Lanka currently will fly to Chennai on January 27 by a chartered flight. Those who are not in Sri Lanka but will be selected for the India tour will fly to India on January 23.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
