Cheteshwar Oujara in action for Sussex. (Courtesy: Sussex County)

HIGHLIGHTS

• India left England without completing their tour in 2021
• India have rewarded Cheteshwar Pujara for his form in County
• India will play just one Test against England

India announced their squad for the final Test match against England on Sunday, 22. A full-strength squad captained by Rohit Sharma sees the return of Cheteshwar Pujara who has been in stellar form in the County Championship.

India, earlier in 2021 had left without playing the final Test match of the series due to a Covid-19 outbreak, but had promised to complete the series in 2022. The Rohit Sharma-led team are scheduled to play their first tour game on June 24, before taking on England in the rescheduled Test match on July 1-5.

The team has called back Cheteshwar Pujara, who has piled up a truckload of runs while playing for Sussex alongside Pakistan superstar Mohammad Rizwan. Both Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were dropped from the Test side and asked to go back to the domestic set-up to find form.

India have chosen Shreyas Iyer after a magnificent series against Sri Lanka where he singlehandedly bailed the team out of trouble in Bangalore. He will possibly slot in place of Rahane and provide India with a completely different dimension.

This will also be the first time that India will be playing Ben Stokes’ England team. The England and Wales Cricket Board have gone through an overhaul after their Ashes debacle Down Under and have appointed different people in key positions in their structure. While Ben Stokes has been appointed the captain of the Test side, Brendon McCullum is set to take over as the head coach of the men’s Test team, starting from the New Zealand series.

TEST SQUAD

Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Jadeja, R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna