IND Vs ENG: The third Test match between India and England will be played in Rajkot from 15th February 2024 to 19th February 2024. Now the battle between the BAZBALL Vs the Spinners of Men in Blue will be even more intense because both sides have won one match each in this series of five red-ball matches. This series is now squared to one all.
Another update from the Indian squad is that Shreyas Iyer is also ruled out of the last three Test matches due to a back spasm and groin injury.
The Test debutant Rajat Patidar, who made his debut in the red ball format in the second match of the series will keep his place in the side and with him Sarfaraz Khan, who is yet to make his debut also cements his place for the time being.
Virat Kohli would be probably the one batter from Team India which the spinners of England, Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed, Sohaib Bashir and Jack Leach would not want to bowl in the Asian and sub-continent conditions.
They will be thrilled and relieved at the same time when they will hear that Kohli will not play the entire series of the red ball format.
The King will also not participate in last three games of the series according to the reports. Apart from missing the first two matches of this five-match red ball series in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, Kohli is also set to miss the last Test matches in Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamshala due to his personal reasons.
Virat attended the practice session before the start of the 1st Test. But he withdrew his name from the opening two encounters earlier and now from the entire red ball series. His name is also not mentioned in the Test squad for the last three games as well.
India’s key players, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja are named in the Test squad of the Men in Blue for the last three matches of this five-match Test series. Both the players, KL and Jaddu have recovered from their respective injuries and because of that only they were not part of the second Test match which India won by 106 runs in Vizag.
But still the BCCI has clarified that Jaddu and Rahul will participate only after they are subject to clearance from the medical team of the BCCI.
Jaddu and Rahul will bring a lot of experience to this side which has talent, but they are also experienced less despite playing in their home background.
Mohammed Shami will be the key miss for India in this series. He hasn’t played any matches since the ODI World Cup 2023 tournament due to his ankle injury.
Shami was the highest wicket-taker of the Men in Blue in that fifty-overs tournament played at home.
Mohammed Siraj has been picked in the squad which has been named for the last three matches of this five-match series. Siraj was rested for the second Test match and with him, Mukesh Kumar has also been named in this squad while Avesh Khan and Saurabh Kumar have been released. Another important thing is that Jasprit Bumrah hasn’t been rested and he is in this squad.
Here is the squad of the Men in Blue for the last three red ball games against England –
Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah(vc), Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep.
