India squad for England Tests to be announced today

The MSK Prasad-led selection panel will meet at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai on Wednesday to pick the Indian squad for the upcoming five-match Test series against England, starting on November 9 in Rajkot.

After India trounced New Zealand 3-0 in the recently-concluded series, the selection committee might not have too many surprises up their sleeves.

Among the new inclusions, Ishant Sharma, who missed out on the last series due to Chikungunya, is expected to be back in the scheme of things, especially after having bowled 40-odd overs in his last two Ranji Trophy outings for Delhi.

Although India look quite comfortable with their set combination of two pacers - Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav - on Indian soil, the addition of Ishant would strengthen the pace battery.

The other bowler who could be discussed is off spinner Jayant Yadav, but he would mostly warm the benches with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja weaving a web around the hapless New Zealand side in the last encounter.

The other important node of discussion would revolve around Gautam Gambhir who got a Test call-up and subsequently a game in the third Test match, at the expense of an injured Shikhar Dhawan.

It would be interesting to see if Gambhir gets a look in, given that both KL Rahul and Dhawan are still nursing their respective injuries. Karun Nair was the other name thrown into the mix during the last series but his inclusion seems highly unlikely, especially with Gambhir notching up a hundred in his last Ranji game against Odisha.

Otherwise, the selection committee is all set to go through a mundane round of discussion with Virat Kohli leading a more or less similar squad for their next home assignment.

Much like the Holkar Stadium in Indore, which hosted its first-ever Test match last month, Rajkot will now brace itself to play host to the series opener. The other Tests are scheduled to be played in Vishakapatnam (Nov 17-21), Mohali (Nov 26-30), Mumbai (Dec 8-12) and Chennai (Dec 16-20).

Source: Cricbuzz