Prithvi in India squad for last 2 Tests

NEW DWELHI: India have named 18-year-old Prithvi Shaw and 24-year-old Hanuma Vihari in the squad for the last two Tests against England at Southampton and Oval, a BCCI media release confirmed on Friday.

Murali Vijay, India’s preferred opener in the first two Tests, has been dropped whereas Kuldeep Yadav, who was the showstopper during the limited-overs leg, too fails to find a place in an exponential decline of fortunes across the summer. Both Vijay and Kuldeep had already been overlooked for the third Test in Nottingham.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, still struggling with the lower back injury he aggravated in the third and final ODI against England, continues to be absent from India’s squad.

Shaw, who averages 56.72 in first-class cricket with seven hundreds and five fifties, is an opener who has forced his way into the squad on the back of a string of strong performances for India A. His recent scores include 188 against Windies A at Beckenham, 62 against England Lions at Worcester and 136 against South Africa A in Bengaluru.

Even before he led India U19 to a World Cup title earlier this year, Shaw was popular in the domestic circuit. He scored a hundred on debut in Ranji Trophy and then became the youngest player to score a hundred on debut in Duleep Trophy, a record previously held by Sachin Tendulkar.

With Vijay dropped after the pair at Lord’s, Shaw’s selection indicates change of guard for Indian batting, which has seen only four openers handed debut since Ishant Sharma’s debut in May 2007, three of the openers being Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul. Shaw isn’t expected to debut in Southampton though, with India’s opening partnership having looked solid with a stand of 60 during each innings of their win over England at Trent Bridge. But that said, Shaw’s inclusion is set to create pressure on Rahul and Dhawan, who have flickered in and out of form, admittedly in part due to the musical chairs for the two available slots at the top.

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Hanuma Vihari.