India tour of Australia: Uncapped trio of Abhimanyu, Harshit, Nitish named in 18-member squad

India have named the uncapped trio of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy in their 18-member squad for the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series which gets underway on November 22.

India will be without two key bowlers in pacer Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav. While Shami has not regained full fitness since undergoing ankle surgery, Yadav missed out due to a “chronic left groin issue”.

The pace-bowling trio of Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed have been named part of the travelling reserves.

Rohit Sharma will captain the side with Jasprit Bumrah serving as his deputy. Opener Easwaran, who has been in very good form in domestic cricket, could make his India debut with Sharma expected to miss one of the first two Tests due to personal reasons.

Bumrah leads the pace battery which also includes Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Rana.

India have gone with three spin-bowling all-rounders in Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Washington Sundar.

Apart from Sharma and Easwaran, India have named Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill as the other top-order options.

Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan and Reddy comprise the middle order batting options with Dhruv Jurel named as back-up wicketkeeper to Pant.

India are holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and face an uphill task of retaining the title in the five-Test series which ends in the first week of January in Sydney.

Indian squad for 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy

Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar

Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed