The national selection committee has ended the uncertainty around the availability of Jasprit Bumrah by drafting him in the team for the T20Is against Sri Lanka and ODIs against Australia. The star pacer will be back playing competitive cricket in a Ranji Trophy match for Gujarat from December 25.
TOI had reported on December 20 that the team management felt Bumrah had recovered from his lower back stress fracture and was ready for Ranji and international cricket even as the national cricket academy (NCA) had refused to conduct his fitness test last week.
TOI understands that the selection committee has gone by the words of Team India physio Nitin Patel and trainer Nick Webb. Chief selector MSK Prasad will be traveling to Surat to watch how Bumrah performs in the Ranji game.
The selection committee decided to rest Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami for the three T20Is against Sri Lanka from January 5 while Shikhar Dhawan comes back from injury and gets named in both teams. However, new white-ball sensation Deepak Chahar is likely to be out for the next three months due to a back injury. Deepak Chahar has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his lower back. He has started his rehabilitation at the NCA and is expected to regain match fitness by April 2020.
"Chahar seems to have aggravated his injury during the West Indies series. He is being looked after. But it is a back injury and he looks to be out till March-April," Prasad said here on Monday. Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur will form the pace attack along with Bumrah.
Prasad also mentioned that star all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who underwent a back surgery in October, is still being monitored and had been left out of both the squads. "We are keeping an eye on him. Maybe, we will have a better idea by the second or third week of January," Prasad said.
THE OPENING FIX
With Dhawan back in the squad, in-form Test opener Mayank Agarwal has been left out of the white-ball teams. KL Rahul has come good at the top of the order and it will be interesting to see if Dhawan gets to start as an opener in the three ODIs against Australia when Rohit joins the team later in the month.
Dhawan's consistency and ability to raise the run rate have come under scrutiny of late. "Rahul is a phenomenal talent. We are happy to see him scoring runs. He makes an impact," Prasad said while dodging questions if Rahul has become the preferred opener ahead of Dhawan. "It's too early to talk about it. Let's see how the T20 series pans out."
Dhawan will also turn up for Delhi in a Ranji game on Wednesday. Prasad also clarified that Sanju Samson has been kept in the T20I side as backup opener and a cover for Rishabh Pant.
SPECIAL FOCUS ON PANT'S KEEPING
While the selection committee is pleased with Rishabh Pant finding his form with the bat, Prasad mentioned that the BCCI is arranging wicket-keeping sessions for the 22-year-old with former India wicketkeeper Kiran More.
T20 team for SL series: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar.
ODI team for Australia series: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami
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