The BCCI selection committee, on Friday, named Ravichandran Ashwin and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Indian cricket team that will travel to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Dhruv Jurel and Prasidh Krishna also made it to the 18-member Indian team that will play a five-Test series Down Under for the first time since 1992. Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini will be part of the three-man travelling reserve.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy starts on November 22 with the first Test scheduled to be played at the Perth Stadium. The second match will be a day-night affair and will be played at Adelaide Oval from December 6.
The action moves to Gabba in Brisbane for the third Test slated to start on December 14 with the customary Boxing Day Test to be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26. The fifth and final India vs Australia Test of the series will be held at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3 to 7.
Both Ashwin and Jaiswal, who represent Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, are in the midst of an excellent World Test Championship 2023-25 campaign for India.
The veteran off-spinner is on top of the wicket charts of the current WTC cycle with a tally of 59 wickets from just 12 matches at an average of 23.45 and a strike rate of 40.32. Ashwin also went past Australian spinner Nathan Lyon in the second India-New Zealand Test to be the highest wicket-taker in the history of the WTC.
Meanwhile, Jaiswal is second on the list of top run-getters in the current WTC cycle having amassed 1372 runs from 13 matches, averaging 59.65. The 22-year-old Jaiswal is also the youngest Indian batter to complete 1000 runs in a calendar year in Test cricket with two double-hundreds and seven fifties to his name in 2024.
Dhruv Jurel will continue as the second gloveman in the Indian Test team with Rishabh Pant handling the primary wicket-keeping duties.
Prasidh Krishna returns to the Test fold after being part of the Indian team in the South Africa tour in 2023-24. The pacer returned to action in domestic cricket with India A in Duleep Trophy 2024 after an injury layoff.
Prasidh picked up four wickets from two matches en route to winning the Duleep Trophy with India A. He was also part of the Rest of India team which played the Irani Cup 2024 against Mumbai.
Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and pacer Harshit Rana are the uncapped players who have been named in the Indian squad.
India are aiming for their third straight Test series triumph in Australia having beaten the home side in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Indian cricket team for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 - full squad
Indian cricket team: Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
