Cheteshwar Pujara Tests positive for India

PTI

New Delhi, May 22

Jammu and Kashmir pace sensation Umran Malik today earned an expected India call-up for the upcoming five-match T20 International home series against South Africa, which starts on June 9.

Malik has picked up 21 wickets in 13 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, but it's his ability to bowl over 150km/h thunderbolts consistently that has caught the imagination of all, and there have been calls for his immediate selection for top-flight cricket.

Punjab Kings' death overs specialist Arshdeep Singh has also earned his maiden national call-up.

Regular captain Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli, and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested for the white-ball series in which Rishabh Pant will be the vice-captain to stand-in captain KL Rahul.

Sharma, Kohli, Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will fly to England on June 15 for the Birmingham Test against England, to be played from July 1 to 5. This Test is part of last year’s series, which was called off after the Indian camp was hit by the Covid virus, with India leading 2-1.

They will be joined by Cheteshwar Pujara, who has earned a recall to the 17-member Indian Test team after a stupendous show in the English County Championship for Sussex.

The 34-year-old Pujara scored 720 runs in five Division 2 games for Sussex, which included two double hundreds and two hundreds. This forced the selection committee to give him a call-up for the fifth match of the Test series. The squad doesn't have any new faces from the one that was picked last year.

A notable omission from the Test squad was Mayank Agarwal, who had a poor tour of South Africa, where he scored only 135 runs in six innings with only one half-century.

Impressive Pandya

All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has successfully led new franchise Gujarat Titans into the IPL playoffs and has been consistent with the bat, besides bowling a few overs at brisk pace, is included in the T20I team. In the case of Pandya, it was never a question of whether he’d make a comeback but when he’d be recalled. — PTI

Pujara for Sussex in April-May

vs Derbyshire 6 & 201*
vs Wrocestershire 109 & 12
vs Durham 203
vs Middlesex 16 & 170*
vs Leicestershire 3

Test squad

Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

T20I squad

KL Rahul (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik

Pacers Umran, Arshdeep picked for T20Is vs SA

New Delhi: J&K pace sensation Umran Malik on Sunday earned an India call-up for the coming five-match T20 International home series against South Africa starting June 9. Punjab Kings’ death overs specialist Arshdeep Singh has also earned his maiden national call-up.

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