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India middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer will join India’s Test squad ahead of the second Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Delhi after successfully completing his rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
After playing in the two-match Test series against Bangladesh in December last year, Iyer suffered a lower back injury, due to which he was ruled out of the white-ball series against New Zealand last month.
28-year-old Iyer was expected to travel from Bengaluru to Nagpur to join the India Test squad ahead of their preparatory camp for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series starting from February 2.
However, his rehab was extended, which ruled him out of the first Test against Australia in Nagpur. In Iyer’s absence, Suryakumar Yadav made his debut in the first Test, scoring 8 off 20 balls.
Finally, Iyer has been cleared by the BCCI Medical Team and will now join the squad in Delhi ahead of the second Test starting from February 17.
In his 7 Tests, Iyer has scored 624 runs, averaging 56.72 at a strike rate of 65.13. He uses his feet well and is excellent against spin bowling, which makes him a key batter for India on pitches which help the spinners. Since 2021, Iyer is also one of the four Indian batters to average above 50 in Asia.
Iyer is coming after an injury break of more than a month and has not played any competitive cricket since his last Test against Bangladesh. It will be interesting to see whether the Indian team management brings Iyer straight into the playing XI in place of Suryakumar for the second Test in Delhi.
India’s squad for second Test: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav.
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