this month later, India is going to play the first match between Bangladesh which consists of a Total of two tests. The starting match will be held on MA Chidambaram stadium from September 19th while Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium will host another red ball encounter as part of the same series from September 27th onward. According to BCCI announcement via their X account (previously known as Twitter), a total of sixteen players have been selected for this Chennai Test starting September 8th.
Rishabh Pant – wicketkeeper batsman has made a comeback into red ball cricket after being out of it for more than twenty months and besides him, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are also included in team for first Test. Earlier this year, Kohli had to miss five Test matches that were played against England due to his second baby and Rahul could not participate in last four Tests due to injury problems.
Just prior to commencement date for first Test match at Chennai former Australian spinner Brad Hogg exlcuded Rahul along with Axar Patel when he picked out India’s playing XI. He deemed Pant much better than Dhruv Jurel as wicketkeeper-batsman .
The XI that I am going to the first Test match against Bangladesh for India—Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma open the batting; Gill three; Kohli four; Jadeja five – keeping left hand right hand combination going; Sarfaraz Khan; Pant – bowlers like Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav (left-arm orthodox), Siraj (pace) plus Bumrah” commented Hogg on his YouTube channel.
As he stated, his chosen XI will also be appropriate for the Australia series.
“That team will perform very well in Australia as well,” he said. Therefore, they need to gear up for an Australian summertime. Hence, this is a great beginning for India. My playing eleven does not contain KL Rahul or Axar Patel,” he added.
Axar was explosive in the Duleep Trophy 2024 game played between India D and India C at Anantapur last week. In the first inning alone, he scored 86 runs with the aid of six fours and equal number of sixes while taking wickets in both innings too. On the contrary, Rahul had an outstanding performance by being top scorer in b
