Ajinkya Rahane to lead India in 1st Test; all-format stars rested against NZ

Vicecaptain Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in the first Test against New Zealand before regular skipper Virat Kohli returns for the second match even as some allformat bigwigs got complete rest from the assignment in line with the BCCIs workload management of playersNewly appointed T20 captain and regular opener Rohit Sharma wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have all been rested from the two matches in Kanpur November 25 to 29 and Mumbai December 3 to 7 Virat Kohli will join the squad for the second Test and will lead the team BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statementMiddleorder batter Shreyas Iyer made a comeback in the Test squad along with offspinner Jayant Yadav The Test series will be preceded by a threematch T20 series beginning November 17 in Jaipur Kohli will not be a part of the T20 series after opting to take a break One of the notable absentees from the Test side was Hanuma Vihari who has been dropped from the 16member squad will be 17 in next TestVihari it is learnt is being added to India A squad for the tour of South Africa where he will get three matches to stake a claim in the main squad which will start its series in the last week of December We are sending Vihari to South Africa for the A series and his performance in the three A Test matches will be monitored a senior BCCI functionary confirmed the development to PTIAccording to sources close to the selection committee Viharis current form and not past record has been taken into account while selecting the Test squad Vihari in his last six firstclass innings for county team Warwickshire produced scores of 32 52 8 0 24 and 43 not out In the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy his output across four innings read 26 7 57 and 4It is understood that Viharis defensive game is pretty similar to that of both standin vicecaptain Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahane who are going to bat at No3 and 4 respectively The reason behind including a more flamboyant Iyer is that against the second new ball he can play a counterattacking knockDitto for someone like Mayank Agarwal in case he is not used in his familiar opening position and dropped down the order Interestingly all the three openers in the squad KL Rahul Agarwal and Shubman Gill at some point in their careers have batted in middleorder in Tests as well as firstclass matchesThere is a possibility that Agarwal and not Iyer will play in that middleorder slotVeteran Wriddhiman Saha the oldest Indian Test player in this current setup at 37 will get another crack at the traditional format during the two matches at Green Park and Wankhede Veteran spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are the first choice tweakers with Axar Patel who had a great series against England at home also in with a chanceJayant an offspinner and stable middleorder batter is also back in the series having done reasonably well in the 201617 series at home against England He is the backup for Ashwin The pace attack will be led by Ishant Sharma with Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj being the other options Prasidh Krishna is the fourth pacer in the squad and wicketkeeper KS Bharath has een rewarded for being in the fringe with a callup in the Test squadAlso Read Yadav unites with his fury babiesIndias Test squad Ajinkya Rahane Captain KL Rahul Mayank Agarwal Cheteshwar Pujara vicecaptain Shubman Gill Shreyas Iyer Wriddhiman Saha wicketkeeper KS Bharat wicketkeeper Ravindra Jadeja R Ashwin Axar Patel Jayant Yadav Ishant Sharma Umesh Yadav Mohammed Siraj Prasidh KrishnaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever