India announced their squad for the upcoming home Test series against New Zealand and it had no major surprises. Despite some good performances in the Duleep Trophy, selectors persisted with the squad that toured West Indies last month.
Virat Kohli will captain the side and will have three spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra, and four fast bowlers in Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav. This is exactly the same bowling-unit that toured West Indies for the 4-match Test series last month.
The team was announced through BCCI’s Twitter account:
TEST squad – Virat (Capt), Rahul, Pujara, Rahane, Vijay, Rohit, Ashwin, Saha, Jadeja, Shami, Ishant, Bhuvi, Shikhar, Mishra, Umesh #INDvNZ
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 12, 2016
Gautam Gambhir, who gave some consistent performances with the bat in the Duleep Trophy, was once again overlooked by the selectors. His fans thought that three consecutive fifties in the ongoing tournament might have forced a rethink from the Indian selectors, however, they decided not to pick the 34-year-old Delhi opener.
Indian Squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha(WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav.
