IND vs NZ: Jasprit Bumrah named vice-captain as Team India announces 15-man squad for New Zealand series

Jasprit Bumrah has been named vice-captain of the Indian Test side after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the 15-man squad for the Test series against New Zealand on Friday (Oct 11). The selectors have shown faith in the same squad that beat Bangladesh 2-0 in the home Test series in September as Sarfaraz Khan retains his place. The three-match Test series will start on Wednesday (Oct 16) in Bengaluru.

With the Australia Test series to come in November, the New Zealand series was looked at as a warm-up for it. Big names like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli keep their place in the squad with Sarfaraz also in contention after impressing domestically. He scored a match-winning hundred for Mumbai in that tournament in the Irani Cup which cemented his place in the squad.

Bumrah on the flip side is the vice-captain as he wins the race for the deputy role to Rohit Sharma. With Rohit unlikely to play in the opening Test against Australia in the Perth Test next month, the talk surrounding the vice-captain role had intensified. However, that race has been won by Bumrah as he won the confidence of the selectors panel led by Ajit Agarkar.

On the other hand, Gill and Jaiswal will keep their places and return after missing out on the T20I squad due to workload management. Both are expected to be the opening pair in case Rohit is not available for Team India.

1st Test – Wednesday, October 26, Bengaluru.

2nd Test – Thursday, October 24, Pune

3rd Test – Friday, November 1, Mumbai

Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd Siraj, Akash Deep.