Team India For One-off Afghanistan Test Announced: Ajinkya Rahane To Lead, Shreyas Iyer Ignored

Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Indian Test squad against Afghanistan in absence of the team's regular skipper Virat Kohli

By: Karan Nanda |
May 8, 2018 6:41 pm

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the 15-member squad for the one-off Test match against Afghanistan, starting June 14.

Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Indian Test squad in absence of team’s regular skipper Virat Kohli, who will be playing for Surrey in the entire month of June. This will be Virat’s maiden county stint.

There were a few reports which earlier claimed that Shreays Iyer, who is currently leading the Delhi Daredevils (DD) squad in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2018 season, might replace Virat in the team. But the selectors opted for Shardul Thakur over Iyer in whites.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma are also made it into the 15-member squad.

After a brilliant show with the willow in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), Kings XI Punjab duo of Lokesh Rahul and Karun Nair have made a comeback to the Test side.

Here’s the squad:
Ajinkya Rahane (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur

#TeamIndia for one-off Test against Afghanistan announced

Ajinkya (Capt), Shikhar, Vijay, KL Rahul, Pujara, Karun Nair, Saha (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Umesh, Shami, Hardik, Ishant, Shardul #INDvAFG

— BCCI (@BCCI) 8 May 2018

Meanwhile, the selectors also announced the squad for two-match T20I series against Ireland in Dublin.

#TeamIndia for two-match T20I series against Ireland announced

Virat (Capt), Shikhar, Rohit, KL Rahul, Raina, Manish, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Hardik, Kaul, Umesh #IREvIND

— BCCI (@BCCI) 8 May 2018

Here’s the squad:
Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Padel, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav