Jasprit Bumrah will lead the Indian cricket team in the upcoming rescheduled fifth and final Test against England at Edgbaston, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said on Thursday.

Bumrah will be the stand-in captain for Rohit Sharma, who had tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and hasn’t managed to recover still.

“Rohit is ruled out of the rescheduled fifth Test against England to be played from Friday. Rohit underwent a RAT Test on Thursday morning and returned a positive result for COVID-19,” the BCCI said in their statement. “The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jasprit Bumrah as captain for the upcoming Test and Rishabh Pant as his deputy.”

India’s Test squad: Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal

Bumrah will become the fifth different man to led the team out in a Test match in the last few months, including Virat Kohli. KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, and Rohit Sharma are the others who have been Indian men’s Test captains in recent times.

On Monday, opener Mayank Agarwal had also been added to the squad as cover for captain Rohit Sharma for the rescheduled fifth Test.

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This appointment makes Bumrah the first out-and-out pacer since Kapil Dev to captain the Indian men’s cricket team in the longest format (Sourav Ganguly, too, technically bowled medium pace).

Edgbaston Test: Mayank Agarwal added to India squad as cover for Rohit Sharma

With vice-captain KL Rahul already missing from the squad due to an injury, the responsibility was entrusted upon Bumrah, who was the vice-captain in the ODI series against South Africa. In the 29 matches he has played in this format, he has picked up 123 wickets.

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He will be India’s 36th Test captain.

More to follow...