Ishan Kishan, the Indian team’s premier wicketkeeper-batter, will miss the forthcoming two-Test series against South Africa owing to personal circumstances.
Kona Bharat, who is currently in South Africa as India ‘A’ skipper, has been inducted into the main squad.
”Ishan Kishan has requested the BCCI to be released from the upcoming Test series against South Africa citing personal reasons. The wicket-keeper has subsequently been withdrawn from the Test squad. The men’s selection committee has named KS Bharat as a replacement,” BCCI said in a statement.
After Bharat was handed five Test matches in which he failed to reach a single fifty, Kishan got his Test debut in the West Indies.
Given Bharat’s awful approach against excellent pace bowling, it is believed that KL Rahul would keep wickets in the Boxing Day Test.
Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk).
