Mumbai batsman Rohit Sharma yesterday made a comeback in the Indian Test squad, replacing an out-of-form Karun Nair for the three-Test series against Sri Lanka starting July 26
Mumbai's Rohit Sharma has his task cut out in Sri Lanka
Mumbai batsman Rohit Sharma yesterday made a comeback in the Indian Test squad, replacing an out-of-form Karun Nair for the three-Test series against Sri Lanka starting July 26.
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Opener KL Rahul has also recovered from his shoulder surgery and has retained his place in the side as the selectors showed consistency, which has been the hallmark of this committee over the past one year.
The three-member selection committee decided on a 16-member squad via tele-conference with 15 members, who were a part of India's fourth Test against Australia in Dharamsala, being retained.
Skipper Kohli had indicated Rohit's return and that was precisely the reason why he was rested for the limited-overs series against West
Indies.
Before his injury, Rohit had scored a hat-trick of half-centuries against New Zealand and the policy of the committee has been to retain a player, who had to forego his place due to injury.
Dip in fortunes for Nair
Nair had gone off the boil after his triple century against England and could not even score a single half-century with scores of 26, 23 and 5 against Australia.
The national selection committee has named Karun the captain of the India A 'Test' side to South Africa, where he is expected to play both formats.
Ishant back too
The 16th member of the squad is third opener Abhinav Mukund, who made a comeback against Australia. The four pacers Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami were automatic selections.
India will play the first Test at Galle from July 26, followed by second Test at Colombo from August 3 and the final Test at Kandy from August 12.
Meanwhile, former Team Director and India captain Ravi Shastri will be the front-runner when the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) meets today to scrutinise candidates for the high-profile job of Indian cricket team coach.
Shastri favourite
For the record, BCCI received 10 CVs — Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Dodda Ganesh, Lalchand Rajput, Lance Klusener, Rakesh Sharma (Oman national team coach), Phil Simmons and Upendranath Bramhachari (engineer with no cricketing background).
It is learnt that the CAC will interview six of the 10 candidates. As per sources, the six likely candidates are Shastri, Sehwag, Moody, Simmons, Pybus and Rajput.
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