Reports: Young Mumbai batsman to replace Virat Kohli for the Test match against Afghanistan

The Indian team for the upcoming Test match against Afghanistan will be picked on Tuesday by the selection committee led by MSK Prasad. While the regular skipper Virat Kohli will miss the historic game due to his County Commitments in the month of June, Ajinkya Rahane is all set to lead the number 1 Test side in the world. However, Shreyas Iyer is most likely to replace Virat in the squad and might also make his debut in the longest format of the game.

The selectors had picked Iyer as the replacement of Kohli for the final Test match against Australia but he had failed to find a place in the XI as Kuldeep Yadav had got a nod ahead of him. Even this time around, with the likes of Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and skipper Rahane being certainties in the playing XI, the Mumbai batsman will have to fight for his place.

Like for like replacements

“We have like for like replacements. For Kohli, it has been Iyer. For Jadeja, it’s Axar Patel, for Hardik Pandya, it is Vijay Shankar. So you cannot miss the pattern,” the selection committee member was quoted as saying by Firstpost. The BCCI official has also quashed the rumours of the key Indian players missing the Test match calling it as a rumour.

“There was a bit of wrong communication in some sections of media. Pujara was always going to play the Test match against Afghanistan. Ditto for Ishant Sharma, who doesn’t have a game for Sussex after his next match against Kent from May 11-14. Both are not playing any Royal London Cup matches during that phase,” the official said.

There is also a possibility that most of the players of the Nidahas Trophy are likely to be picked for the two-match T20I series against Ireland which will commence on June 27.

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