(Football news) The Indian team was on the verge of creating history the last time they were in England. The men in blue were leading the Test series 2-1 with one game to go but unfortunately the match had to be postponed due to a Covid outbreak in the Indian camp. Now India is ready to go back to finish the job. BCCI has announced the 17-member squad for the match.

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, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav were always going to be in the squad. It was already confirmed that KS Bharat will be trusted as a 2nd choice wicket keeper in the squad. Out of all these players only KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant are in the squad for the T20I series against South Africa.  

Shardul Thakur returns to the squad after being rested for the Sri Lanka series. Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped from the squad due to poor form but is now back. After being unsold in the IPL mega auction, the batter went on to score a lot of runs in county cricket which has massively worked in his favour. Whether he is put straight back into the XI will be very interesting to see. Priyank Panchal, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav and Saurabh Kumar who were a part of the Sri Lanka series have been dropped. 

The two notable absentees are Mayank Agarwal and Axar Patel. After scoring a match winning hundred against New Zealand, Agarwal had underperformed against South Africa and Sri Lanka. The only sensible reason why Axar Patel has been dropped would be the conditions. The management looks to be pretty clear that Axar won't be playing even if there are multiple injuries. Ajinkya Rahane who was also dropped from the squad with Pujara ruled out any possibility of a return as he suffered an injury during the IPL. There is still no place for Ishant Sharma in the squad.

Prasidh Krishna gets his maiden call-up into the red ball side. After being a net bowler for the series last year, the seamer has had an incredible year. His performances in the IPL, Ranji Trophy along with his man of the series show against West Indies in the ODIs has given him a much deserved call-up. Even though he will be behind Shami, Bumrah, Siraj, Umesh and Shardul in the pecking order it should be a good experience for him. Prasidh is considered to be a big part of India's Test team future and this is the first step.

Also read: Takeaways from India's squad for T20I series against South Africa