3 Deserving Players Who Were Not Picked In India Test Squad for England

With the announcement of the 16-member squad for India during the five-match Test series in England, selectors have mostly leaned towards a young batting line-up. In Jasprit Bumrah’s presence, the bowling unit will be a little stronger.

However, the biggest absence from the squad is the two veterans, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Shubman Gill will shoulder the responsibility of the red-ball side, with Rishabh Pant set to be his deputy.

India, due to their two consecutive red-ball series defeats at home against New Zealand and Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 down under, will aim to start the fourth WTC 2027-29 cycle with a victory in England.

India’s Test squad for the England Tour

Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk and vc.), Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav

Here are the three deserving players who were not picked in India’s Test squad for England

1. Mohammed Shami

The head of the selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, revealed that their premier pacer, Mohammad Shami, picked up an injury in the last few weeks. He also informed that the medical team had advised them to avoid the Bengal pacer.

Shami has featured in 122 innings to collect 229 wickets at an average of just below 28 and a strike rate of 50.2, thanks to 12 four-wicket hauls and six five-wicket hauls at the best figure of 6/56 in an inning. His last five-day game came against Australia two years ago. Due to injury, he missed a huge chunk of play before undergoing a Ranji Trophy clash against Madhya Pradesh in Indore.

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Shami is yet to recover fully from the issue, and that has ruled him out of bowling a longer spell at the current fitness level. In his absence, Arshdeep Singh got the chance to get into the playing eleven.

2. Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz Khan, just six months ago, smashed a fine 150-run knock against New Zealand at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during the second innings of the opening Test. His knock provided the home side with some chance to be in the game.

However, he didn’t get any opportunity for India in Australia. The Mumbai batter missed the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 due to injury. Recent reports claimed that the 27-year-old worked on his fitness. However, none of these have worked in his favor.

The right-handed batter, who has clubbed 371 runs in 11 innings at an average of 37.10 and a strike rate of 74.94 with three fifties and one century, won’t travel to England.

3. Axar Patel

It’s very difficult to believe Axar Patel didn’t come among India’s top 16 members of the Test side to tour England. He could have been the best replacement for Ravindra Jadeja, who is at the fag end of his career.

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During India’s four-match Test series at home against Australia two years ago, he was the third leading run-getter. The southpaw collected 264 runs in five innings at an average of 88 and a strike rate of 55.70, with three fifties at the best score of 84 runs in Delhi.

Axar can offer India left-arm spin and a great aspect on the field. On dry surfaces like Edgbaston, they could have left out Nitish Reddy and used Axar on the side. That would have made their batting stronger with five bowling options.