India unveil squad for first and second Australia Tests

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan will challenge for a debut in the format and Ravindra Jadeja is included but must prove his fitness. Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant remain sidelined

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan will challenge for an India Test debut against Australia after being included in a squad for the first two Tests next month.

Ravindra Jadeja has been included subject to his fitness, having not played since August 2022.

Sarfaraz Khan, tipped to replace the unavailable Rishabh Pant, is overlooked.

The bowling attack will be without Jasprit Bumrah who has been advised to rehab for another month but the attack still contains Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav and the ever-reliable Mohammad Shami.

Ravindra Jadeja is selected subject to proving his fitness (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Umran Malik, similar to Ishan and Suryakumar, has impressed in white-ball cricket.

But the stand-out call-ups come for Kishan, who has transitioned his IPL performances comfortably into the international game. His double century against Bangladesh in Chattogram was followed by 132 on his first-class return in the Ranji Trophy.

India squad v Australia (first two Tests)

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Kona Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadket, Suryakumar Yadav

India v New Zealand

ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik

T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (c), Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar

Suryakumar is called up after an extraordinary 2022. He scored 1,164 runs at 46.65 with an outstanding strike rate of 187. 

The series starts on February 9 in Nagpur before the series moves to Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad.

India have also named their ODI and T20I series against New Zealand starting from next week.

The T20I group is without captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who are rested ahead of the visit of Australia. Hardik Pandya will again lead the side.

KL Rahul and Axar Patel miss both series due to family commitments.

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