India Squad For Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 Announced; Maiden Call-up For Nitish Reddy And Harshit Rana

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has named three uncapped players in the form of opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, pace-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, and the fast bowler Harshit Rana in their squad of 18 for the upcoming five-match Test series in Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

The anticipation was to see the return of India’s premier pace bowler Mohammad Shami, who has been out of the action for nearly a year now, but the selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar hasn’t added him to the squad. The left-arm wrist-spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, wasn’t available for selection because of ‘chronic left groin issue’ as the BCCI has stated.

Rohit Sharma will lead the side, while the premier pacer of the team, Jasprit Bumrah, has been addressed as the vice-captain. The former is set to miss one of the first two games for personal reasons, and that could be a great chance for the left-handed Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran to make his Test debut.

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The 29-year-old has smashed 7638 runs in 99 first-class fixtures at an average of nearly 50 and a strike rate of over 53, with the help of 29 half-centuries and 27 centuries at a best score of 223.

Three spin all-rounders have been picked for India in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar, who marked his return in the format with 11 wickets in Pune against New Zealand.

Nitish Kumar Reddy replaces Shardul Thakur In India’s Test squad vs Australia

The visitors have added the pace-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is already a part of the India A side, which will be featuring in the two four-day games in MacKay and Melbourne. The 21-year-old has been part of 21 first-class games for his 708 runs at an average of below 22 with the help of two centuries and one century, besides picking up 55 scalps at an average of 26.

The pace bowling department has been decorated with the inclusion of Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, and Harshit Rana. The lanky fast bowler of the Karnataka side has played two Tests previously but was recovering from a serious back injury. Rana represented Delhi and picked up two four-wicket hauls for India D in the Duleep Trophy.

Khaleel Ahmed has been in the reserves in the absence of Yash Dayal, who will be part of the T20Is series in South Africa. The first warm-up game against India A starts on November 15 at the WACA before they face Australia for the opening game at the Optus Stadium on November 22.

They will travel to Canberra for a two-day tour game on November 30 due to the preparation of the day-night fixture that starts on December 06 in Adelaide. The third Test will be played at the Gabba from December 14, followed by the traditional Boxing Day and New Year’s Test.

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India, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, won their maiden red-ball series in Australia during the 2018/19 summer before the Ajinkya Rahane-led side repeated the same feat in the 2020/21 summer. This will be the first time since their 2011/12 trip down under that both Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara won’t be part of the tour.

India squad for the five-Test in Australia

Rohit Sharma (captain), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar

Travelling Reserves:

Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, and Khaleel Ahmed.