India’s Virat Kohli will miss the remaining three Tests in the ongoing five-match series against England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced on Saturday.
Kohli, who had pulled out from the first two Tests because of “personal reasons”, will then remain unavailable for selection for the remainder of the series, as per the BCCI.
The other notable name missing from the squad is Shreyas Iyer, who had not had a good series so far, with scores of 35 and 13 in Hyderabad and 27 and 29 in Vishakapatnam. According to Cricinfo, the batter experienced some back spams post the second Test, but was cleared for selection.
In the press release naming the 17-member squad for the latter half of the series, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, sat out the second Test in Vishakapatnam due to injury – Jadeja with a hamstring injury and Rahul with a right quadriceps pain.
In their place, Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar and Washington Sundar were all named as replacements, but only Khan and Washington have been named in the squad for the Tests in Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamsala. Other than these two, Rajat Patidar, who made his debut in Vishakapatnam, also retains his spot.
It is a first Test squad call-up for fast bowler Akash Deep, who impressed during the red-ball series against England Lions, where he picked up 11 wickets across the three matches.
The inclusion of Rahul and Jadeja is also contingent on them being declared medically fit by the BCCI team ahead of the Tests.
The series is currently 1-1, with England having won the first Test in Hyderabad by 28 runs before India struck back with a 106-run victory in Vishakapatnam to level the series. The third Test begins in Rajkot on February 15, followed by Ranchi on February 23 and ends in Dharamsala with the final Test starting on March 7.
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