The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for India's tour to Bangladesh in Mumbai on Wednesday. With this, Harbhajan Singh makes a comeback into the Test squad after two long years.
In a media release, BCCI announced the names of the players who have been selected for this three-week long tour, which has one Test match and three ODIs.
There had been a lot of speculation about what kind of team the selectors would prefer for this bilateral series. There were rumours that they would select experienced players as Bangladesh have been in good form of late and recently demolished Pakistan 3-0 in an ODI series at home.
The national selectors also had mentioned earlier that none of the senior players informed the selection committee, headed by Sandeep Patil, about opting out of this tour.
Therefore, it was evident that Virat Kohli was set to lead India for the Test match, as MS Dhoni hung his boots from the longer format of the game.
The availability of pacer Mohammed Shami was doubtful, as he missed out on the IPL 2015 because of an injury. Dhawal Kulkarni has now replaced Shami in the ODI squad. Ravichandran Ashwin was the obvious choice as the leader of the spin attack.
The revival of veteran Harbhajan Singh was on the cards, as few days ago BCCI were thinking on the lines of bringing back the 'turbanator', as he will add more experience to this Indian side. Youngster Karn Sharma also gets a call for the Test squad.
Here is the squad for India's tour to Bangladesh:
Test: Virat Kohli(C), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashwin Ravichandran, Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma.
ODIs: MS Dhoni (C), Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravichandran Ashwin , Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Dhawal Kulkarni.
