BCCI Shortlists 35 Players for England Tour, Rohit to Lead
The selectors of the Indian cricket team have shortlisted 35 players for the tour of England. The tour will begin after the conclusion of IPL 2025 and will kick off India's World Test Championship campaign. The Board has decided to retain Rohit Sharma as captain, while Rajat Patidar and Karun Nair can be given a chance in place of Sarfaraz Khan.
The selectors of the Indian cricket team have reportedly shortlisted 35 players who could be part of India A's tour of England ahead of the five-match Test series. The tour will begin a week after the conclusion of IPL 2025. The Test series against England will be the beginning of India's World Test Championship campaign.
According to a report, Rohit is most likely to travel with the India A team. It has been said in the report that the board believes that the team needs a strong captain for the challenging tour in England. There was a lot of speculation about the board considering a change of captaincy after the disappointing performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. However, Rohit led India to win the Champions Trophy and garner the BCCI's support to continue as Test captain.
A BCCI source said, "Rohit is most likely to travel as the board feels that a strong captain is needed during the series, which is likely to be as tough as the Australia tour."
The report further states that the selectors have very little faith in Sarfaraz Khan. Instead, they wants to give Rajat Patidar and Karun Nair a chance in Team India A matches. One of these two is expected to make a place in the middle order.
"Regarding the middle-order, the team management has shown little faith in Sarfaraz Khan's ability. Both Patidar and Nair are experienced Test players and are in good form. At least one of them will be in the India A team," the source said.
It has also been further stated in the report that the board has not yet taken any decision on Shreyas Iyer's return to the Test team. Shreyas played his last Test against England in February, after which he was dropped from the BCCI's central contract list. After this, he was also dropped from the Test team. However, Iyer took part in all the domestic tournaments during his absence from Team India. The source said, "As far as Iyer is concerned, he was dropped on the basis of poor performance in Test cricket last year. A final decision is yet to be taken. "