IND vs NZ: Newly-appointed T20 captain Rohit Sharma to skip entire Test series
Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead the side in the opening Test in Kanpur as Kohli extends his break after opting out of the three-match T20 series starting November 17 in Jaipur.
India’s newly-appointed T20 captain Rohit Sharma is set to be rested from the two-match Test series against New Zealand while Virat Kohli will miss the opening match as a “mentally and physically exhausted” Team India gets down to workload management during the home assignment.
Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead the side in the opening Test in Kanpur as Kohli extends his break after opting out of the three-match T20 series starting November 17 in Jaipur.
It is learnt from a reliable BCCI source that the squad has been finalised after a meeting of the selection committee on Thursday but a formal announcement is still awaited. Other bigwigs who will sit out both the Tests, to be held in Kanpur and Mumbai, are wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh
Pant, and the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. Rohit will take this break after leading the team in the T20 series. The Tests are scheduled to start on November 25 in Kanpur.
Likely squad for Test series against New Zealand:
Ajinkya Rahane (captain), K L Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, KS bharath (wk), Ravindra Jadeja.