Vijay, Kuldeep axed, Shaw, Vihari added to India squad for remaining 2 Tests
NOTTINGHAM: Opener Murali Vijay’s India career seemed to be over after he was axed by the national selectors on Wednesday from the squad for the last two Tests in England.
Vijay, 34, was among the few successes on the 2014 England tour. He has not made runs since the South Africa Test series in January. He was dropped for the third Test in Trent Bridge after scores of 20, 6, 0, 0 in the first two games, beaten by in-coming deliveries each time that suggested dipping reflexes. In 59 Tests, he scored 3,933 runs, averaging 39.33 with 12 centuries.
Vijay was out leg before to leftarm swing bowler Sam Curran and Stuart Broad in the first Test at Edgbaston and then bagged a pair at Lord’s, bowled by James Anderson in the first innings and caught behind off the bowler in the second innings.
The MSK Prasad-led panel, which met here after the third Test, included teenaged batting sensation, Prithvi Shaw, the U-19 World Cup-winning skipper, as the third opener. They also chose Hanuma Vihari, whose firstclass average of 59.79 is the world’s best among current players. Their inclusion is also with an eye on the Australia tour at the end of the year. Left-arm Chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, the third spinner in the side, has been released from the squad. Squad: V Kohli (capt), S Dhawan, KL Rahul, P Shaw, C Pujara, A Rahane, K Nair, D Karthik, R Pant (both wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, H Pandya, I Sharma, M Shami, U Yadav, J Bumrah, S Thakur, H Vihari. India A squad: S Iyer (capt), M Agarwal, R Samarth, A Easwaran, A Bawne, S Gill, KS Bharat (wk), S Nadeem, K Yadav, K Gowtham, R Gurbani, N Saini, A Rajpoot, M Siraj.