India vs West Indies: Hosts name 12-member squad for second Test in Hyderabad

The Indian team has named the 12-member team for the second Test against West Indies in Hyderabad. As is the new norm with the team management, India named their squad just after the press conference and they have gone in with the same team as that in the first Test in Rajkot. Clearly, Mayank Agarwal and Mohammed Siraj need to wait for their chance.

The team reads: “Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur.

The real challenge for the Virat Kohli-led Indian team lies not in taking on an abysmal West Indies, who lost the first Test at Rajkot by a record margin, but to guard itself against any complacency that tends to creep in during victories at home, which can also lead into any false sense of security. After all, they take on Australia in their own backyard after this.

For a team that has lost six and won four out of 10 Tests this year, India resembled that clinical unit at Rajkot which a world No 1 team is expected to. However, such traits were far from visible for majority of tours to South Africa and England, and with an impending Australian tour, the team would be expected to stick with its new benchmarks.

India defeated West Indies by an innings and 272 runs — their biggest win by such a margin over any team in Test cricket — bettering their innings and 262-run win over Afghanistan earlier this year.

Their newest opener Prithvi Shaw smacked century on debut, Cheteshwar Pujara was among runs. Virat Kohli notched up his fourth hundred to bring up 1,000 runs in the year, even Ravindra Jadeja got to his elusive three-figure mark. Kohli and Shaw — who also took two sharp catches — entered record books with their respective knocks.

Ravichandran Ashwin (4/37, 2/71) remained unplayable at home, and Kuldeep Yadav (5/57) recorded his maiden five-for.

First Published: Oct 11, 2018 11:33 IST