KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Jasprit Bumrah have made comebacks to India’s Test squad for the two-match series in South Africa. Ajinkya Rahane has been dropped, while Virat Kohli, who opted out of the white-ball leg of the tour, is part of the squad led by Rohit Sharma.
Mohammed Shami, who was rested for India’s last Test series, in the West Indies in July, is also back, but his inclusion is subject to fitness – the BCCI release announcing the squad said the fast bowler was “currently undergoing medical treatment”.
The series will also mark Rahul Dravid’s first Test assignment in his second stint as India’s head coach after his contract was extended on Wednesday.
With Rahul included as a wicketkeeping option, there was no place in the squad for KS Bharat, who was one of two keepers in the West Indies, where he slipped behind Ishan Kishan in the pecking order. Until that tour, India had preferred Bharat over Kishan, both for the home series against Australia and the World Test Championship final at The Oval.
Also left out from the squad that toured West Indies are fast bowlers Jaydev Unadkat and Navdeep Saini, while fellow quick Mukesh Kumar, who made his debut during that series, keeps his place.
Bumrah last played a Test more than 17 months ago, against England in Birmingham. Since returning from a back injury that kept him out for over a year, Bumrah has slowly built up his workload across white-ball formats.
He returned to action this August on the tour of Ireland, and spearheaded India’s pace attack at the 2023 World Cup, where he was the tournament’s fourth highest wicket-taker. Rahul and Iyer are also returning to Test cricket following long injury layoffs after last playing the format during the Border-Gavaskar series at home in February-March.
