-By Manish Gupta
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah who has already shown his skills in ODI and T20 format of the game has received his maiden test call-up. The right arm pacer has impressed the selectors in the longer formats as he picked 89 wickets in 26 first-class games.
Selection committee meeting
MSK Prasad said during the selection committee meeting,“With regards to Bumrah, if you see his performance in the last 18 months, it has been phenomenal, sensational in ODIs and T20. Considering his brilliant performance in last year’s Ranji Trophy, he was a unanimous choice”.
“I really feel unfortunate for Kuldeep Yadav. But considering we’re only going to play three Test, considering Kuldeep ahead of No. 1 and No. 2 spinners in the world is a bit of a big ask. Otherwise, Kuldeep is definitely a top-class bowler and over a period of time we’ll see him growing,” Prasad said.
Other Major Selections for the SA tour
Hardik Pandya has also been added to the Test side. He was rested during the ongoing Sri Lanka series and underwent strength and conditioning training in Bangalore at NCA. Parthiv Patel has also been included on the test side for India vs South Africa. Last year against England he did well by scoring 42, 67*,15 and 71 in three tests. So he will be traveling with the team as a backup wicketkeeper. Two players that were a part of Sri Lanka series did not find a place in the team.
Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Parthiv Patel, Jasprit Bumrah
