The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the 12-man squad for the first Test against Windies, scheduled to begin on October 4 in Rajkot.
Virat Kohli will lead the side after being rested for the recently concluded Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates which India won by beating Bangladesh in the final. Prithvi Shaw has been included in the squad and would make his Test debut on Thursday.
18-year-old Shaw, along with Hanuma Vihari, was flown to England after the first three Tests saw India trail 1-2. However, it was Vihari who went on to make his debut in the fifth and final Test as India lost the series 1-4.
Shaw was being widely tipped to make his international debut following an excellent show for the India A teams during 2018 that also saw him captaining India U-19 team to their fourth World Cup title in February.
Shaw made a century on his Ranji debut and has scored 1418 at an average of 56.72 in 14 first-class matches.
However, another prolific domestic run-scorer Mayank Agarwal, who received a maiden call-up for the two-match Test series against Windies, will sit out of the first game and will have to wait further to don India jersey. Middle-order batsman Vihari, who scored a fifty on debut, has also been excluded.
Shaw will open the innings with KL Rahul as India have opted for a combination of six batsmen. The bowling combination will be known on the playing day itself.
India’s 12-man squad for 1st Test:
Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur.
