Bumrah appointed vice-captain for New Zealand Tests, Shami not ready yet

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced India's 15-member squad for the upcoming three-match Test series against New Zealand, which begins on October 16 in Bengaluru. 

The squad remains largely the same, except for two changes — Jasprit Bumrah has been appointed the vice-captain after the position was left unoccupied during Bangladesh Tests, and Yash Dayal hasn’t been included for these three Tests after being part of the squad for the recently concluded Bangladesh Test series. Mohammad Shami also failed to make the cut for the series, implying that he has failed to recover in time from his injury. 

Bumrah’s appointment as a vice-captain is crucial in the context of Rohit Sharma being in doubt to play the first Test of the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia in Perth due to personal reasons. If that happens, Bumrah, Rohit’s new deputy, will be the team's skipper. 

Notably, Bumrah has already captained India once in the one-off Test against England in Manchester, where Rohit had to sit out due to a COVID-19 infection. That was the first time after Kapil Dev that a fast bowler captained India in a Test match.

Bumrah, who’s 31, has also been India’s vice-captain in the recent five-Test series against England, the two-Test tour to South Africa in 2023-2024, and the home Test series against Sri Lanka in 2022. 

In terms of the squad, except Dayal, the players are the same who participated in the Bangladesh Test series, and would once again be looking to clean sweep the Black Caps. 

However, interestingly, pacers Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy have been added as the travelling reserves for the three-Test series. 

After the first Test in Bengaluru, the next two Test matches will be held in Pune and Mumbai, starting October 24 and November 1 respectively. Meanwhile, New Zealand had earlier announced that skipper Kane Williamson will be missing the first Test due to groin injury. 

India’s squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep

Travelling Reserves: Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Yadav and Prasidh Krishna