NEW DELHI, Apr 25: Ajinkya Rahane, discarded since January last year, returns to the Indian squad for the World Test Championship final to be played against Australia at Oval, England, from June 7 to 11.
Suryakumar Yadav has lost his place in the Indian team along with Kuldeep Yadav and Ishan Kishan for the WTC final, as per the squad announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday.
Rahane, a veteran of 82 Test matches, last played for India in the longest format of the game in January last year. Since then, he was not considered for selection owing to poor form. However, having done well in domestic cricket and the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the 34-year-old made his way back.
From the Indian squad that featured against Australia in the 3rd and 4th Test, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ishan Kishan are the notable absentees while Shreyas Iyer couldn’t be a part of the team owing to an injury. Along with Rahane, all-rounder Shardul Thakur has also been included in the squad for the WTC final.
With Iyer out injured, the selection committee decided to hand the veteran Rahane a recall. The experienced batter had shown superlative form with the bat in the IPL for CSK. In the season so far, Rahane has aggregated a whopping 209 runs at an average of 52.25. These runs have come at an exceptional strike-rate of 199.04. He sits third in the list of top-scorers in the IPL at present.
The summit clash between India and Australia will be held from June 07 to June 11 at the Oval in London. In the recent 4-match Border-Gavaskar Test series between the two sides, Rohit Sharma’s men had secured a 2-1 triumph. However, away from home, things are likely to be trickier for the team.
India squad for WTC final against Australia:Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
(Manas Dasgupta)
