Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan & Bhuvneshwar Kumar miss out from Test squad for England series

As the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India announced India’s Test squad for the first 2 Tests of the five-match Test series against England starting November 9, there were a few surprise exclusions with Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan not being included in the final squad of 15.

While Rahul, Bhuvi and Dhawan incurred injuries in the Test series against New Zealand, Rohit picked up his injury en route his knock of 70 during the 5th and final ODI against New Zealand at Vizag.

According to reports, Rohit Sharma is set to miss the entire Test series, while KL Rahul will miss only the first two matches. Bhuvi, on the other hand, was cured of his injury but the selectors wanted to assess his match fitness first, before selecting him in the squad. Shikhar Dhawan is yet to recover from his thumb injury and his comeback date is still unknown.

Rohit Sharma who had a decent Test series against New Zealand will be looking to get back on his feet quickly and make it back into the squad before Australia come visiting in December. In 5 innings, he scored 238 runs at an average of 79.33 and a high score of 82 which came in his favourite venue – Eden Gardens.

His knock of 70 in the final ODI against New Zealand turned out to be the highest score as India defeated the Kiwis by 191 runs to seal the series 3-2.

KL Rahul, who is on his way to becoming the next big thing in Indian cricket, has had some excellent performances for India against Zimbabwe earlier this year where he scored 196 runs in 3 innings at an average of 196 and highest score of 100. He managed to play the first Test against New Zealand where he scored 70 in 2 innings at an average of 35 after which he suffered an injury.

Shikhar Dhawan, who has been struggling with inconsistency over the past few months, might find it hard to make a comeback to the squad with the likes of KL Rahul and Karun Nair in the reckoning.

On the other hand, Bhuvi has been hitting the right areas while bowling and has troubled the opposition batsmen time and again. He will be itching to make a comeback in time for the 3rd Test against the Englishmen.