Ajinkya Rahane to lead India in one-off Test against Afghanistan, Virat Kohli to return for Ireland T20s

Ajinkya Rahane will captain India in Virat Kohli’s absence for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June. Kohli, who will be with Surrey for his county stint, will be back for the T20s against Ireland in the last week of June.

cricket Updated: May 08, 2018 18:44 IST
Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in Virat Kohli’s absence for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June.(REUTERS)

Ajinkya Rahane will captain India in Virat Kohli’s absence for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday named a 15-member squad for Afghanistan historic Test, to be played at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore from June 14-18.

Kohli has been allowed to skip the Afghanistan Test to acclimatise for the England Tests by playing for English county side Surrey, after a disappointing show in 2014, where he managed just 134 runs in five Tests at an average of 13.4. Pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have also been rested. Rohit Sharma also doesn’t figure in the squad.

Karun Nair, who was dropped for the South Africa tour and the home series against Sri Lanka late last year, is back for the Test. Wriddhiman Saha has returned after missing two of the three Tests against South Africa due to a hamstring injury.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, who are also playing county cricket for Yorkshire and Sussex respectively, will join the squad for the Bangalore game.

While Kohli will return for the Ireland and England series, Ambati Rayudu, who has performed brilliantly so far in IPL 2018, has been selected for the ODI series against England. Rayudu last played an ODI in 2016.

After the Afghanistan Test, India will face Ireland in a two-match T20 series. Both games will be played in Dublin on June 27 and 29.

The Kohli-led India will then start their full tour of England with a three-match T20 series, starting July 3. The first game will be played in Manchester while the second and third will be played in Cardiff (July 6) and Bristol (July 8).

After a gap of three days, the two teams will feature in a three-match ODI series. The first match will be played in Nottingham (July 12) while the second and third will be played in Lord’s (July 14) and Leeds (July 17).

Shreyas Iyer has been named India A captain for the one-day tri-series against England Lions and West Indies A while Karun Nair will lead the side for two four-day games against West Indies A and one four-day match against England Lions.

“Prior to the (England) ODIs, it will be a good opportunity for me to get to know the wickets there. It will be a great experience,” Iyer said.

Indian team for one-off Test against Afghanistan: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur

Indian team for two-match T20I series against Ireland: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav

Indian team three-match T20I series against England: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Wsahington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav

Indian team three-match ODI series against England: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav

India A team for one-day tri-series in UK: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubhman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Vijay Shankar, K Gowtham, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Prasidh Krishna, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur

India A team for four-day matches in UK: Karun Nair (captain), R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Vijay Shankar, Srikar Bharat, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani