'We felt that Rohit's nature of play, a very good back-foot player, is suited for Australia. Murali Vijay was dropped from the England series. He went back and he played the county and showed his intent and performed and considering the intensity of the series, we've included him for the Australia series,' MSK Prasad said on Rohit Sharma's selection
Pune: Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel were recalled to the Indian Test squad for the Australian tour while opener Mayank Agarwal and paceman Mohammed Siraj were dropped without being given a chance.
The MSK Prasad-led selection committee, on Friday night, named an 18-man squad for the four-Test rubber Down Under. The selectors have gone in for an experienced line-up rather than testing new faces.
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Agarwal and Siraj have been omitted. Both were in the squad but not given an opportunity in the two-Test series against the Windies.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya was still not fully fit and not considered for the tour. Wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha is also not fit and India have two stumpers in Rishabh Pant and Patel.
On Rohit's selection, Prasad said, "We felt that Rohit's nature of play, a very good back-foot player, is suited for Australia. Murali Vijay was dropped from the England series. He went back and he played the county and showed his intent and performed and considering the intensity of the series, we've included him for the Australia series."
The 30-year-old Rohit has been prolific with the bat in the limited-overs formats. However, he has not replicated the same in the longest form. So far, he has played 25 Tests and averages 39.97 with 1,479 runs. The last of his Tests was in South Africa in January this year.
Vijay, who was dropped from the team during the England series, has won his place back after doing well for Essex in county cricket.
India-Australia Test series starts on December 6 in Adelaide.
The selectors also added Kedar Jadhav to the Indian ODI squad for the fourth and fifth matches against the West Indies.
They also announced India A squads for New Zealand tour.
India’s Test squad for series against Australia
Virat Kohli (captain), M Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
India A squad for 1st four-day game against New Zealand A
Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), M Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wicket-keeper).
India A squad for 2nd and 3rd four-day game against New Zealand A
Karun Nair (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, R Samarth, Ankit Bawne, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani.
India A squad for three one-day games against New Zealand A
Manish Pandey (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed.
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