Dubai: Indian captain Rohit Sharma is ruled out of the rescheduled fifth Test against England to be played at Edgbaston from Friday. Rohit underwent a RAT Test on Thursday morning and returned a positive result for Covid-19.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jasprit Bumrah as captain for Test with Rishabh Pant as his deputy, according to a statement from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Bumrah will be the first pacer after legendary Kapil Dev to lead the Indian Test team and will have a huge task on hand against an England team that is playing a new brand of aggressive cricket under the new management led by skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
India faced a leadership crisis with vice-captain KL Rahul also missing the match to have surgery for a sports hernia in Germany.
Opening options
Mayank Agarwal has joined the squad as cover but India have yet to decidie who will be Shubman Gill's opening partner in Rohit's absence.
Coach Rahul Dravid has said they have two more options in stumper-batsman KS Bharat and top order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara.
India are 2-1 up in the series which could not be completed last year because of Covid-19 cases in the India camp ahead of the final match at Old Trafford.
Anderson recalled into squad
Meanwhile, England have recalled James Anderson, who missed the conclusion of England’s series whitewash of New Zealand when an ankle injury ruled him out of the third Test at Headingley.
But the 39-year-old, England’s all-time record Test wicket taker, will return to the side against India even though replacement Jamie Overton scored 97 on his debut in Leeds.
“That’s how sport at the top level works sometimes,” England captain Ben Stokes told reporters on Thursday.
“It must be very disappointing for him (Overton) but he can walk away knowing he did everything he could.”
Billings replaces Foakes
In another change to an England team announced almost 24 hours ahead of the toss, Sam Billings will take over as wicketkeeper.
Billings was called up at short notice during the New Zealand series finale for his second Test appearance as a Covid-19 substitute for first-choice gloveman Ben Foakes, who was also hampered by a stiff back at Headingley.
“Unfortunately Foakesy hasn’t recovered as well as we’d have liked him to,” said Stokes.
“So Sam is going to stay in the team.
Rejuvenated England
“(Foakes) hasn’t really recovered from last week and doesn’t feel like he could give the best account of himself this week. We took the decision out of his hands and said ‘get yourself better’.”
Friday’s match should have been played in Manchester last September but, hours before it was due to start at Old Trafford, it was postponed because of Covid-19 concerns in the India camp.
India will face a rejuvenated England, who under their new leadership duo of Stokes and red-ball head coach Brendon McCullum swept the Black Caps 3-0 after winning just one of their previous 17 Tests.
Indian team:
Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal
England team:
Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (capt), Sam Billings (wkt), Matthew Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson
