IND vs ENG: Not injured but Shreyas Iyer ‘axed’ from India’s squad for remainder of England series - Reports

After much anticipation and less than a week to go for the start of the third Test match in Rajkot, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for the remainder of the Test series against England on Saturday (Feb 10). The BCCI had some hard decisions in hand before they announced the squad for the remaining three matches with Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul in doubt for several reasons. However, by Saturday afternoon, it was reported that Shreyas Iyer, who like Virat is not part of the Test series anymore, is not injured but has been dropped from the squad.

Shreyas Iyer was reported to have suffered another injury scare and was to miss the remaining Test series. However, according to PTI, Shreyas was axed from the squad for poor performances and is fit to play. Shreyas has been suffering a recurrence of back injury in recent times but was still in the frame to play all the matches in the England tour.

His performances in the last few innings have seen him score 191 runs in nine innings, a poor return for the Mumbai batter. With Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan also in the squad, it is expected that Shreyas’ form will become a huge worrying sign for him and the selectors have finally pulled their trigger to axe the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain.

A huge doubt for the remaining three Test matches, the BCCI on Saturday officially confirmed Virat’s exclusion from the squad for the remainder of the series. The 35-year-old will miss the series due to personal reasons which means he will have to wait longer to complete 2000 Test runs against England. He has 1991 runs and had a golden opportunity to get into the 2000-run club while he needed just 52 runs to make England his favourite Test opponent.

Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul continue to rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru but are included in the squad for the remaining matches. However, their inclusion in the Playing XI will come after a clearance from the medical team. While Jadeja is expected to be fully fit for the fourth Test in Ranchi, Rahul could be available for the Rajkot Test starting on Thursday.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul*, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep