Who is the vice-captain of India?
After playing a lot of white-ball cricket for the past for months, team India now all set to play a two-match test series, starting December 14. Let us look in detail at Who is the vice-captain of India men’s test cricket team?
KL Rahul will handle the leadership role for the first test as team India’s regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who suffered an injury during the second ODI against Bangladesh, has been left out of the opening test due to the same reason.
The medical team will tell in sometime whether he will play or not in the second test. BCCI hhas decided to add the skipper of India-A team Abhimanyu Easwaran in the team as a back-up opener in Rohit’s absence.
The question, however, was that who will lead India in the absence of India was solved with KL Rahul. But, if Rahul handles the captaincy role, then who will be the vice-captain of India men’s test cricket team?
With Virat Kohli, the former and the experienced player also part of the squad, BCCI took the decision to appoint Cheteshwar Pujara as the vice-captain of team India for the first test.
Pujara, who previously faced some heat due to non-performance in some of the international games, claimed his spot again in the team after playing superbly in the County Championship.
In the 8 matches for the 2023 County Championship, Pujara has recorded a total of 1,094 runs at an average of 109.40. This includes five centuries and three double centuries against Derbyshire, Durham, and Middlesex.
Pujara, however, known for his excellent performances in test, captained the team Sussex in the Royal London one-day Cup 2022, and he was just unstoppable in the ODI format too.
The right-arm batter had continued his dominant performance on the English soil by smashing another century, but this time in the ODI format.
The top-order batter known for his reliable test batting, scored runs in a 50-over format match at a strike rate of 135.44, and he played outstandingly this year on the English soil.
India will most likely to play with 6-batter 5 bowlers’ technique, with KL Rahul and Shubman Gill will likely to open the innings.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant will handle the middle order. While Ravichandran Ashwin will be the key spinner in this series for India.
Ravindra Jadeja, who previously included in the squad will miss the test due to injury along with Mohd. Shami.
A lot will depend on the young shoulders of Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Navdeep Saini and Umesh Yadav in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, and Ravi Jadeja.
India squad for 1st test against Bangladesh:
KL Rahul (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat.
