Ajinkya Rahane has been named in India's 15-man squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia set to be played at The Oval from June 7. The 34-year-old former captain was dropped at the end of the 2021-22 tour of South Africa after a protracted run of low scores, but injuries to key personnel and his own spectacular form in the ongoing IPL 2023 has offered him a window to return.
India’s Test squad WTC final: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
The side also sees the return of KL Rahul after he was dropped from the last two Tests of the Australia series.Iyer has recently undergone back surgery and is expected to be out of action for some time. Pant, on other hand, has started his slow recovery process after suffering a car accident in December last year. Rahane has been in stellar form in this IPL. He has scored 209 runs in just five innings for CSK at a staggering strike rate of 199.05 which is 62 more than his previous best in 2019.The spin-bowling all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel have held on to their places in the squad. It is, however, unlikely that the three of them will play together. In fact, if the conditions are favourable for seamers then the management could opt for Shardul Thakur as the fourth pacer, which will mean only one among Ashwin, Jadeja or Axar will play as a spinner. In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, who is also ruled out because of a back injury, the onus of leading the pace attack will fall on Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj. The battle for the third seamer will be between veterans Jaydev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav.
