Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah to lead India in 5th Test against England in Edgbaston
Mumbai/IBNS/UNI: Jasprit Bumrah is set to lead India in the fifth Test against England in Edgbaston, in what will be the first time he will lead the national side in any format as skipper Rohit Sharma is down with Covid-19.
Bumrah is also set to make history as the first pacer to captain India in Tests since the legendary Kapil Dev in 1987.
"Mr Rohit Sharma, Captain, Indian Cricket Team is ruled out of the rescheduled fifth Test against England to be played from Friday. Rohit underwent a RAT Test on Thursday morning and returned a positive result for COVID-19," the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a statement.
"The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Mr Jasprit Bumrah as captain for the upcoming Test and Mr Rishabh Pant as his deputy," the BCCI stated.
Rishabh Pant has been named vice-captain.
Rohit tested positive for Covid-19 last week during the warm-up game against Leicestershire. Though he played the first innings, he was forced into isolation after testing positive and did not take part in the second innings.
Rohit's absence will be a massive blow for India. Apart from being the captain, Rohit had shown tremendous form during the first part of the series last year, scoring 368 runs, including a century in the fourth Test.
India have announced Mayank Agarwal as cover for Rohit. Given there is no quarantine for international travellers, Agarwal has already travelled to England and has linked up with the Test squad.
Having only made his Test debut in 2018, Bumrah has quickly become one of the most important players in India's red-ball sides.
He has played just 29 Tests, but is already the leader of the pace attack, and occupies the No.3 position in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Bowler's rankings.
India’s Test squad: Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal
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