India’s veteran batters Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have been dropped from the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka.

Rohit Sharma has been named as the new Test skipper of the team. Rahane and Pujara haven’t been in the best of forms in the last few years and it was expected that they would be shown the exit doors by the national selectors for the series against Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, Ishant Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha have been dropped from the Test team. Chief national selector Chetan Sharma has revealed that the doors are absolutely open for Pujara as well as Rahane and they can definitely get back into the team after performing well in the Ranji Trophy. In fact, Rahane scored a fine hundred for Mumbai but it was not enough to save his place.

Spinner Saurabh Kumar, who has an impressive average of 24.1 in first-class cricket, has received a maiden call-up in the Test squad.

“The selection committee put a lot of thought into it and came to the decision. We have spoken to them earlier and we have told them that we will not consider them for the two Test matches against Sri Lanka. The doors are absolutely open for them.

We told them to go and play Ranji Trophy. That is the best part for both of us, such senior cricketers are going and playing Ranji Trophy… Just for two Test matches, the selectors decided to give a chance to other cricketers,” Chetan said.

On other hand, Chetan added that Rohit Sharma is the number one cricketer of India and he has been handed over the Test captaincy onus. Moreover, Jasprit Bumrah has been named Rohit’s deputy.

“Rohit Sharma is the No. 1 cricketer of our country and the most important thing is that he is playing all three formats. The important thing is how we manage Rohit and all the current cricketers are very professional, they know their body, they manage their body.

With Rohit, there’s absolutely no problem at all. We will definitely talk to Rohit from time to time (with regards to rest and workload), and when we spoke, he’s absolutely okay. If a big player like him becomes a captain then automatically – even we’ve spoken about it at the selection committee – grooming captains under Rohit Sharma will be a tremendous thing for us,” Chetan Sharma said.

“For us, the longer Rohit captains we will be that much happy. We can take time-bound decisions. Anyone can be injured, there can be a problem… But for now let’s hope that everything goes right.”

Ravindra Jadeja also returns to the squad after missing the Test series against New Zealand and the subsequent tour of South Africa. Furthermore, Kuldeep Yadav makes a return to the Test squad and Sharma added he will get a longer run. KS Bharat has been named as a backup wicket-keeper batter.

KL Rahul and Washington Sundar have been ruled out due to fitness issues whereas Shardul Thakur has been given rest.

Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin (subject to fitness), Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Saurabh Kumar