Indian captain Virat Kohli to return after first Test in Adelaide

Kohli, who will miss the rest of the three Tests, will return home as his wife Anushka Sharma is expecting the birth of their first child in early January.

Hyderabad: Indian captain Virat Kohli has informed the Sunil Joshi-led National selection committee that he plans to return home after the first Test against Australia in Adelaide. “The BCCI has granted paternity leave to the Indian captain. He will return after the first Test against Australia in Adelaide,’’ said the BCCI release on Monday.

Kohli, who will miss the rest of the three Tests, will return home as his wife Anushka Sharma is expecting the birth of their first child in early January.

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With Kohli heading back to India, the selectors decided to include the injured Rohit Sharma, who was initially not in any of the three teams for the Australia tour. The National selectors also named left-arm seamer T Natarajan as replacement for the injured spinner Varun Chakravarthy in the T20 team for the forthcoming series in Australia.

According to a BCCI press note, the selectors met on Sunday to pick certain replacements after receiving injury reports and updates from the medical team.

The BCCI medical team has been monitoring Rohit Sharma’s fitness. “In consultation with Sharma, it has been decided to rest him for the ODIs and T20Is in Australia to regain full fitness and he has been included in India’s Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy,’’ said the release.

The selection committee has added Sanju Samson as an additional wicket-keeper to India’s ODI squad while fast bowler Ishant Sharma, who has been undergoing his rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, will be added to India’s Test squad once he fully recovers and gains sufficient match fitness.

However, in a severe blow Chakravarthy has been ruled out of the T20I series owing to a shoulder injury. The selectors have named T Natarajan, who according to Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner as find of the IPL, will be included in the T20 team.

However, there are still some doubts on the injured wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who sustained hamstring injuries during SRH’s IPL game on November 3. A call on his availability will be taken later.

Promising pace bowler Kamlesh Nagarkoti will not be able to travel to Australia as he is still working with the medical team on his bowling workload management.

The revised squads are as below:

Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan.

Team India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper).

Team India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj.

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