Prithvi Shaw will be handed his Test cap on Thursday morning as India announced a 12-man squad for the first Test against Windies, starting on 4 October in Rajkot. BCCI released a 12-man squad on Wednesday, confirming that the captain of World-Cup winning under-19 cricket team, will become the 293rd Test player for India.
📢 Just in: India announce 12-man squad for the first Test against West Indies. #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/BlESa0B4z7
— CricketNext (@cricketnext) October 3, 2018
Shaw has scored an outstanding 1,418 runs in 14 First-Class games thus far. The Mumbai batsman had received a maiden call-up to the Test side during the England tour where he was picked in the squad for the last two Tests. However, he didn’t make it to the playing eleven in both.
While the batting order looks sorted with KL Rahul opening with Shaw followed by Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant, it will be interesting to see what bowling combination India opts for in first Test.
There are three spinners (Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav) and and three pacers (Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur) in the 12-man squad. The conditions and the pitch will decide whether India goes with three pacers or three spinners.
India 12-man squad for 1st Test: Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw (debut), Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur.
