Team India selectors yet to clarify on selections for New Zealand Tests and T20Is

The BCCI has already named the squads for India’s upcoming home T20I and Test series against New Zealand, but a lot of questions, regarding selections, still remain unanswered. Earlier, it was learned that a few of the players requested for rests after spending a significant amount of time in the bio-secure bubbles while others had to be rested for workload management.

Keeping in mind the same, Hanuma Vihari’s exclusion from the Test squad seemed a tad baffling. Vihari isn’t a part of India’s ODI and T20I teams and last played the longer format back in January 2021 during the tour of Australia. After being greeted with backlashes, the selectors added him to the Priyank Panchal-led India A squad for the tour of South Africa.

As per reports, the selectors wanted Vihari to be match-ready when Virat Kohli’s Team India tour South Africa for a three-match Test series.

“Sending him to South Africa is to make sure he is match ready when India reach South Africa for the three-Test series,” a source, privy to the development, was quoted as saying in Cricbuzz.

Vihari is also being said to be an “automatic choice” in India’s playing eleven, but the national selectors are trying to form a larger pool of batters for Test cricket, and therefore picked Shreyas Iyer.

If reports are to be believed, fast bowler Umran Malik is being taken care of after his decent performance for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. “Umran’s will be rightly utilised, he is a rare talent,” a source said.

The doubts surrounding India’s ODI captaincy also remain. The new selection panel, led by Chetan Sharma, has been chipping in with quite a few surprises.

India Test squad

Ajinkya Rahane (Captain first Test), Virat Kohli (Rested for first Test, Captain for second) KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

India T20 squad

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj.