NEW DELHI: India captain Virat Kohli will return home from Australia after the opening Test in Adelaide next month to attend the birth of his child, the national cricket board said on Monday.
Kohli’s deputy Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in the final three Tests of the tour which begins in Sydney on Nov 27 with first of the six short-form internationals.
At the Oct 26 selection committee meeting, Kohli informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of his plans to return home after the day-night Test in Adelaide from Dec 17, board secretary Jay Shah said in a statement.
“The BCCI has granted paternity leave to the Indian captain. He will return after the first Test against Australia in Adelaide,” Shah said.
Kohli’s actress wife Anushka Sharma is pregnant with their first child.
That means the world’s top ranked one-day batsman will lead India in the three One-day Internationals, three Twenty20 Internationals in November and December and the opening Test.
The second Test starts in Melbourne on Dec 26 followed by matches in Sydney (Jan 7-11) and Brisbane (Jan 15-19) in strict bio-bubbles during the pandemic crisis.
The BCCI announced several changes to the touring party after several players sustained injuries in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
Opener Rohit Sharma has been added to the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after initially being left out of the touring party because of a hamstring niggle.
Rohit Sharma, who picked up a hamstring injury in the IPL, will start late, despite taking part for defending champions Mumbai Indians in Tuesday’s final against Delhi Capitals.
The board said a medical team had been monitoring the 33-year-old opener and “it has been decided to rest him for the ODIs and T20Is in Australia to regain full fitness” before taking part in the Tests.
Veteran fast bowler Ishant Sharma will also be added to the Test team after he regains full fitness from a muscle tear that made him miss a large part of the IPL with Delhi.
The Indian board also confirmed Test wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha has injured both his hamstrings in the IPL and a call on his availability will be taken later.
Saha was in excellent form with the bat in his last three IPL matches but the injury kept him out of the playoffs where his team Sunrisers Hyderabad lost to Delhi Capitals in Sunday’s virtual semi-final.
Hyderabad captain David Warner confirmed Saha had a torn hamstring when asked about his fitness at the toss in Abu Dhabi.
Saha is considered technically the best wicket-keeper in India and Rishabh Pant, the second stumper in India’s squad for the four-Test series, has been rather inconsistent with the bat in IPL.
Saha did not immediately reply to a message seeking details of his injury.
India’s preparations for the Australia tour have been jolted by a series of injuries to key players, including opener Rohit Sharma (hamstring) and paceman Ishant Sharma (muscle tear), sustained during the IPL.
Sanju Samson has joined the one-day team as an additional wicket-keeper, while left-arm paceman Thangarasu Natarajan replaced spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who sustained a shoulder injury, in the Twenty20 squad.
India will leave on Thursday to undergo a two-week quarantine before the first ODI in Sydney.
Under Kohli, India registered their maiden Test series victory in Australia last year.
Revised squads:
Twenty20: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Thangarasu Natarajan.
ODI: Kohli (captain), Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Rahul, Iyer, Pandey, Pandya, Agarwal, Jadeja, Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Saini, Shardul Thakur, Samson.
Test: Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, Pant), Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj.
Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2020