(Cricket news) India have named their squad for the two Test matches against New Zealand. The first Test will be played from 25th to 29th November at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. The next one will be at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai from 3rd to 7th December.

Squad:

Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur have all been rested for the series  presumably with the South Africa Tests in mind. Virat Kohli has been rested for the 1st Test but will be back for the 2nd one. Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna and Jayant Yadav are called up for the first time.

Also read: Kohli might give up captaincy in other formats to focus on his batting: Shastri

The controversial decision taken by the selectors was to leave out Hanuma Vihari. After making his debut in 2018, Vihari has delivered every time he has been asked to. He was the highest run scorer when India won the Test series in West Indies. In his last Test match he batted for two hours with a torn hamstring to save the match in Sydney. The draw was the reason India retained the Border Gavaskar trophy.

The decision to drop Vihari after giving him no opportunity since his heroics at Sydney has no logical explanation. Vihari has been added to India A's squad for the South Africa tour. The reason might be for him to get some experience in South African conditions when India go there later this year. Nevertheless, the call is very harsh on Vihari who has only played 2 Tests in home conditions. The middle order batter would've liked to get some runs under his belt especially when Kohli is unavailable for the 1st Test.