Stand-in Indian skipper for the first Test against Bangladesh KL Rahul has opened up about why Cheteshwar Pujara was preferred over Rishabh Pant as vice-captain for Bangladesh Tests. He said that team doesn’t think about this as both have been brilliant for them and have done the job for the team.
Cheteshwar Pujara named vice-captain for the first Test against Bangladesh
India and Bangladesh will be locking horns in the two-match Test series. The two Test matches will be played in Chattogram on 14th December and Mirpur on 22nd December respectively. But ahead of the series, the visitors suffered a major blow as skipper Rohit Sharma injured his thumb during the ODI series.
There were a lot of speculations about whether he will play the Test series or not. However, recently BCCI made the official announcement related to the availability of Rohit Sharma. The Indian skipper was ruled out of the first Test, which paved way for KL Rahul to lead the side.
Apart from this, BCCI made a few changes to the squad as well. They added Abhimanyu Easwaran as a replacement for Sharma and also drafted Navdeep Saini, Jaydev Unadkat and Saurabh Kumar as replacements for injured Mohammad Shami and Ravindra Jadeja.
Covering all bases, #TeamIndia trained in Chattogram ahead of our 1st Test against Bangladesh.
Snapshots from our training session 📸📸#BANvIND pic.twitter.com/xh6l9rdhYu
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However, apart from all the changes, one thing that looked surprising in the revised squad was VC at the end of Cheteshwar Pujara’s name. The development came as a surprise because Rishabh Pant was earlier slotted for the role and his certain demotion invited a lot of criticism for the team management as well as the selectors.
KL Rahul opens up about why Cheteshwar Pujara was named as vice-captain over Rishabh Pant for Bangladesh Tests
With the development inviting a lot of skewering, stand-in skipper KL Rahul has now revealed why Pujara was chosen as the vice-captain for the Test series. Speaking to reporters, he said:
“I at least don’t know what the criteria is, whoever is picked you give yourself a pat on your back. Even for me, when I was named the vice-captain, you get happy, you have the responsibility of the team.”
“Rishabh Pant and Cheteshwar Pujara both have brilliant for us, and have done the job so many times. We don’t really think that much. Everyone knows their responsibility. We carry on as a team.”
Here’s India’s revised squad for the first Test:
KL Rahul (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Akshar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat
The Two Captains – @klrahul & Shakib Al Hasan pose with the silverware ahead of the two-match Test series.#BANvIND pic.twitter.com/IlcH39MncZ
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