KL Rahul to replace Rohit Sharma as captain in India's 1st Test vs Bangladesh

KL Rahul will captain India the first of two Test matches against Bangladesh as Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the opening Test after dislocating his thumb during the second One-Day International against Bangladesh, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Sunday. Cheteshwar Pujara has been made the vice-captain of the Indian team.

During the second ODI against Bangladesh, Rohit Sharma suffered a thumb injury and walked off. He did take the field to bat in the closing stages of the chase, scoring an outstanding half-century. 

“India captain Rohit Sharma met with a specialist in Mumbai for his left thumb injury, which he sustained during the 2nd ODI against Bangladesh. He has been advised appropriate management for this injury and will not be available for the first Test against Bangladesh,” BCCI said in a statement.

The BCCI also stated that Abhimanyu Easwaran had been added to the team to take the place of the Indian captain. On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami were not included in the team for the duration of the series. They were replaced by Saurabh Kumar and Navdeep Saini.

According to the board, Jadeja was not fully recovered from his knee injury and Shami had not yet fully recovered from a shoulder injury.

In a subsequent development, Jaydev Unadkat was recalled by the selectors to the Test squad in place of Mohammed Shami. After 12 years, the left-arm pacer has finally made it to the Test squad. Unadkat made his Test debut at the age of 19 in 2010 in Centurion against South Africa.

The first Test of the series will be played in Chattogram from December 14 to December 18, and the second Test will be held in Dhaka from December 22 to December 26.

Indian team for Bangladesh Tests include KL Rahul (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat.