Mumbai: Rishabh Pant on Sunday returned to the Test side after nearly 20 months as India announced their 16-man squad for the opening match of the two-Test series against Bangladesh starting on September 19.
Virat Kohli also made a comeback having missed the five-Test series against England at home earlier this year for having taken a break for the birth of his second child.
While fast bowler Mohammed Shami remains on a comeback trail and was not included in the squad, uncapped left-arm Uttar Pradesh fast bowler Yash Dayal received his maiden Test call-up.
India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who was last seen in national colours during the T20 World Cup, returned to the squad and he is expected to play a couple of more Tests against New Zealand in October-November, before the team flies out to Australia for a five-Test series.
Bumrah is perhaps the only player apart from Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma to have been given freedom to choose as per the workload requirement and how his body responds, according to sources. Having played in the second and final Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur from December 22-25, 2022, Pant had met a road accident a few days later on December 30 and made his return to top flight cricket only in IPL this year.
The 26-year-old swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batter returned to the national side in their title-winning campaign in the T20 World Cup. Shami failed to make it to the Test side even though chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had earlier expressed that the right-arm seamer was targeting a return in the first Test against Bangladesh.
Dayal, who was once smashed for five consecutive sixes by Rinku Singh in an IPL match, has had a remarkable redemption with his India call-up. After that game, the UP seamer's mother fell ill being reportedly ill and having stopped eating but he impressed in his stints last year with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Dayal has played 24 First-Class matches for Uttar Pradesh since his debut in 2018, taking 76 wickets.
KL Rahul, who suffered a right quadriceps injury after the first Test against England at Hyderabad, also returned to the Test side. He scored 37 and a valiant 57 for India A against India B in the Duleep Trophy contest in Bengaluru which concluded on Sunday.
On expected lines, the likes of Rajat Patidar, Devdutt Padikkal and Mukesh Kumar did not find a place while wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, who produced robust performances against England including match-winning knocks of 90 and 39 not out in the Ranchi Test, retained his place.
While Patidar was short of runs in the three Tests he played against England, Padikkal scored a composed 65 on debut at Dharamsala but had to make way with Kohli returning and Sarfaraz retaining his place.
Right-arm Bengal pacer Akash Deep, who made his Test debut against England at Ranchi with an impressive three-wicket burst, took nine wickets in the Duleep Trophy match for India A against India B in Bengaluru.
India's long Test season begins with the first of the two Tests against Bangladesh in Chennai. The second Test of the series will be played at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur from September 27 to October 1.
India and Bangladesh have played 13 Tests so far in which the former has won 11 times while two have ended in draws. Bangladesh will enter this series having recorded a historic 2-0 win over Pakistan in the opponent's backyard whereas it will be India's first Test assignment since beating England 4-1 in January-March earlier this year.
After the conclusion of the Tests against New Zealand at Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai, the team will travel to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting on November 22 at Perth. India squad for 1st Test: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.