Kohli, Hardik, Ishant return to India's 18-member squad for first two England Tests
Bumrah, Ashwin cleared to play, Natarajan rested, while Axar earns call-up
Hardki The squad was finalised by the newly assembled Indian selection committee headed by former India fast bowler Chetan Sharma. Attending the meeting virtually was India captain Virat Kohli, who had returned home in December from the Australia tour to attend the birth of his first child. Also present at the meeting, which took place hours after India's epic triumph in the Gabba Test, were the four other selectors: Sunil Joshi, Abey Kuruvilla, Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh, who is in Brisbane.
Apart from Kohli, also making a return was Ishant Sharma.He was forced to miss the Test series in Australia as the selectors wanted him to regain complete match fitness despite him recovering completely by mid-November from the injury he picked up during the IPL. Ishant, who is three matches away from becoming only the second India fast bowler after Kapil Dev to play in 100 Tests, proved his match fitness while turning up for Delhi during the group stage of ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Along with Ishant, the Indian fast bowling attack will comprise Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur. Both Siraj and Thakur were part of India's historic series win against Australia.has.has been included in India's 18-man squad for the first two Tests of the home series against England, starting next month. ESPNcricinfo understands the national selectors, who met today, have also handed a call-up to left-arm spinner Axar Patel to strengthen the spin department.
Main squad:
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal
Middle-order: Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul (subject to fitness after first Test)
Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur
Spinners: R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel
Standbyes: KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Priyank Panchal
Net bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, K Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar
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