Chennai, September 12
The Indian cricket team arrived at the Chennai Airport on Thursday night, ahead of the first Test match against Bangladesh.
Star players Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, and Kl Rhul were spotted boarding the team bus at the airport.
The two-match series between India and Bangladesh will kick off on September 19 in Chennai at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Meanwhile, the second long-format game will begin on September 27 in Kanpur. In his first Test assignment, head coach Gautam Gambhir will be keen on securing a series win.
Rohit Sharma will continue to lead the Test side. Pacers Akash Deep and Yash Dayal received maiden call-ups, while dynamic wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has returned to Test cricket for the first time since his life-threatening accident in December 2022.
Notably, Virat Kohli will also return to Test format for the first time since featuring for India during the South Africa tour in January this year. He missed out on India's home Test series against England due to the birth of his son Akaay.
Since then, he has gone through an underwhelming T20 World Cup and Sri Lanka tour and will be keen to return to find his rich vein of form.
During India's unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup, Virat finished the tournament with 151 runs in eight matches at an average of 18.87. During India's surprising 2-0 ODI away series defeat against Sri Lanka, Virat, just like the rest of the batters, was exposed in front of spinners. In three ODIs, Virat could garner a mere 58 runs at an average of 19.33.
Rahul has also made his return to the Test set-up after missing out on the bulk of the England Test series due to an injury. Along with Rahul, "national treasure," Jasprit Bumrah has also returned to the Indian team for the first time since producing that match-winning spell in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa earlier this year.
The spin quartet of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav will provide the team with both the bat and ball. Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Yash Dayal will make India's pace line-up.
For Bangladesh, uncapped batter Jaker Ali has replaced injured pacer Shoriful Islam in the squad that played against Pakistan. Shoriful sustained a groin injury in the first Test against Pakistan and will not be considered against India.
In the absence of Shoriful, Taskin Ahmed, Nahid Rana, Hasan Mahmud, and Khaled Ahmed will lead Bangladesh's pace attack in the two-match Test series against India. Najmul Hossain Shanto will lead the squad in the two-match series against India.
Bangladesh will look to build on their recent historic Test success in Pakistan. Recently, for the first time, Bangladesh tasted the sweet flavour of victory against Pakistan in Test cricket. The Shanto-led side completed a 2-0 whitewash over Pakistan.
For the Rohit Sharma-led side, this series against Bangladesh will be followed by New Zealand's tour to India for three Tests starting from October 16 onwards and, finally, the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia from November 22.
India's squad for the 1st Test of the Bangladesh Test series: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.
Bangladesh squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Zakir Hasan, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Kumer Das, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Nahid Rana, Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Jaker Ali Anik.