Pacer Harshit Rana has been added to the Indian cricket team squad for the first Test against England at Leeds, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced in a release late on Tuesday. The 23-year-old Rana has featured in two Tests, five ODIs and one T20I for India.
A statement from BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia said: “The Men’s Selection Committee has added Harshit Rana to India’s squad for the first Test in Leeds against England. Rana, who was a part of the India A squad, has linked up with the team as India begin preparations for the first Test.”
The India A squad played two matches against England Lions recently. Rana was involved in an intra-squad match in Beckenham recently.
The India squad in England at the moment has five pace specialists in the form of , , Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and . The side also had two pace-bowling all-rounders, Reddy and Shardul Thakur.
Bumrah has meanwhile revealed in an interview with Sky Sports that he will be unable to play through an entire five-match Test series due to a recurring back issue. “I won’t be able to play all matches in a five -match series… Three Test matches is what I’m looking at. And obviously, the number is not decided. First is definitely on. Yes, that is going to happen. Rest we see how things are, what is the workload, what are the scenarios going on. But yeah, exactly three Test matches are what I can manage at this moment. And I don’t want to be in a desperate scenario,” .
The five-match India vs England Test series kicks off at Headingley, Leeds on June 20 (Friday).
(C), (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, , Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, , Nitish Reddy, , Dhruv Jurel (WK), , Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, , Harshit Rana
