Rohit Sharma will captain a team that includes six specialist batsmen.
Ajinkya Rahane has been nominated to India’s 15-man squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia in June, despite not having played a Test since January 2022.
Rahane, who made his Test debut in 2013, has not played since the Cape Town Test against South Africa last year, where he made 9 and 1, closing off a terrible run of form on a tour in which he scored only 136 runs from six innings. He was later dropped for the following Test series against Sri Lanka, while Chetan Sharma, India’s selection committee chairman at the time, stated that the door was not completely closed for Rahane to be picked again in the future.
Rahane, who was previously in the BCCI’s central contracts list in the Grade B category, was not handed a contract in the current cycle.
Rahane admitted in September that he had to “start from zero again” after recuperating from his injuries, and that he was looking forward to the domestic season to get back into the running. He finished the Ranji Trophy as Mumbai’s best scorer, with 634 runs from seven matches, including a double-century against Hyderabad and 191 against Assam.
Rahane has also been in fine form for Chennai Super Kings in the present Indian Premier League, scoring an unbeaten 71 against Kolkata Knight Riders last week.
Other than that, there were no big shocks in India’s picks. Rohit Sharma will continue to captain the team, which includes six specialist batsmen, including Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul. Shreyas Iyer and Jasprit Bumrah, who are both recovering from back ailments, were unable to play.
The WTC final will be held at the Oval from June 7 to 11, with a reserve day on June 12. India qualified for the final after a 2-1 series win at home against Australia earlier this year.
India Squad
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, and Jaydev Unadkat.
