Virat Kohli fans will continue to feel disappointed as the star batter is missing from the squad for the remaining three Tests of the five-match series against England announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI. Kohli have been off the field since the T20I series against Afghanistan in January and this time his absence has been owing to personal reasons.
On his absence, the BCCI stated it “fully respects and supports Kohli’s decision” adding batter KL Rahul and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s participation is subject to fitness clearance from the medical team while Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan and Pacer Akash Deep are part of the series. Mohammed Shami too will continue to remain out of the field. He was absent due to injury in the first two Tests.
The third Test will commence in Rajkot on February 15, the fourth Test in Ranchi on February 23 and the fifth-cum-final Test of the series will be in Dharamsala from March 7. Presently, the series is level 1-1. After a 28-run loss in the first Hyderabad Test, Bharat clinched the second Test at Visakhapatnam by 106 runs.
Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep.
With Inputs From ANI
