Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara set to return to English County after West Indies tour

Tests specialists Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara will return to playing in division two of the County Championship after India’s upcoming tour of the West Indies. Following the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia in the UK, India will visit the Caribbean Islands for a full tour, starting with the first of the two Tests in Dominica on July 12.

Both Rahane and Pujara were part of the playing XI for the one-off title clash, which Australia won by 209 runs. Pujara fared poorly across both innings, scoring 14 and 27, whereas Rahane, who returned to the Test setup after a considerable gap, was the best batter – piling up 89 and 46 in the match.

After his successful outing in the one-off Test, head coach Rahul Dravid promised an extended run for Rahane in Tests unless injury-hit middle order players Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer make a comeback.

While Pujara will return playing for Sussex, for whom he played six games before the WTC Final, hitting three hundreds and a fifty from six matches, Rahane will represent Leicestershire. The right-hander signed a deal with Leicestershire in January and was supposed to play eight first-class games and the entire Royal London Cup (50-over tournament) from June to September following IPL 2023.

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However, with him getting picked for the WTC Final and also likely to be named for two-match West Indies Tests, Rahane’s Leicestershire stint got delayed.

"Ajinkya, after the two Tests in West Indies (scheduled to end on July 24), is supposed to fly directly to England and join Leicestershire for the remainder of the season," a BCCI source told PTI. "He will play the Royal London Cup in August and a possible four county games in September as he is unlikely to be a part of white-ball scheme of things."

Meanwhile, this will be Rahane’s second stint in the UK as part of their domestic tournament. Earlier, after getting ignored for the 2019 World Cup, the experienced campaigner played for Hampshire that season.

Since the Indian domestic season resumes around September and with no red-ball international series scheduleduntil the end of the home World Cup, Rahane will have ample time to iron out flaws and get back in reckoning for a sure-spot in the Test side.

Left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh is the only Indian playing in the County Championships for Kent. He has played one game so far against Surrey, returning with four wickets.

Meanwhile, the BCCI selectors will announce the squads for the West Indies series on June 27.

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