The BCCI announced the Indian team's squad for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final to be played in England and also for the subsequent five-match Test series against England as well.
India will face New Zealand in the WTC final, which will be played from June 18-22, with 23rd being a reserve day. The match will be played at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.
After this, India will engage in a five-match Test series against England with the matches to be played- 1st Test in Nottingham from August 4, 2nd Test at Lord’s from August 13, 3rd Test at Leeds from August 25, 4th Test at Kennington Oval from September 2 and the 5th Test at Manchester from September 10.
It was expected that the BCCI will choose a huge squad as the team management requested for extra members so that they could play practice games amongst themselves to prepare for the England Test series after India A tour of England was postponed.
BCCI picked 20-man squad with KL Rahul and Wriddhiman Saha's inclusion depending on fitness clearance. Most of the players are the ones who were picked on the tour of Australia and in the home Test series against England, with the injured players recovering to make their respective comebacks.
Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar don't find a spot in the squad while the selectors named four standby players who will also tour with the main squad.
India's squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul (subject to fitness clearance), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper; subject to fitness clearance).
Standby players: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Arzan Nagwaswalla
