 "Team India will be facing England in a five-match Test series starting 20 June, which will be their first assignment of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle. AP")
The Shubman Gill-led India squad for the upcoming England Test series that the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee had announced last month might not be set in stone, with pacer Harshit Rana having been asked to stay back after the conclusion of India A’s matches in England.
Rana, who had made his international debut in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia recently, was part of the India A team that played two unofficial Tests against England Lions along with an intra-squad match against the Gill-led Indian team that will be in action four days from now.
Rana to not board the flight back to India with the rest of the India A squad
According to RevSportz, Rana will not be boarding the flight back to India along with rest of the India A squad on Tuesday, 17 June, and has been asked to stay back in England with the main squad. However, it’s yet to be confirmed whether Rana has officially been added to the Gill-led squad , or whether he simply is on standby at the moment.
Rana had played the first unofficial Test against the James Rew-led England Lions team in Canterbury, collecting a solitary wicket, that of Josh Hull, for 99 runs. Several members of the India A squad have reportedly received offers from County teams, but it isn’t clear whether Rana’s case is of a similar nature.
The Agarkar-led selection committee back picked Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Akash Deep and Shardul Thakur in the pace department for the tour of England along with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. Nitish Kumar Reddy has been picked as the lone seam-bowling all-rounder for the upcoming series.
Mohammed Shami, who had made his return to the Indian team after spending more than a year on the sidelines, was overlooked for the tour, as was Rana – who had played the first two Tests in the tour of Australia, collecting 3/48 in his first outing in Perth.