Bumrah, Rahul and Shreyas back in India’s Test squad for South Africa

Also left out from the squad that toured West Indies are fast bowlers Jaydev Unadkat and Navdeep Saini, while fellow quick Mukesh Kumar, who made his debut during that series, keeps his place.

Iyer’s return left no place for Rahane, who was India’s Test vice-captain on the tour of the Caribbean in July, an elevation that came on the back of an excellent outing in the WTC final against Australia at The Oval. Rahane’s two subsequent innings in the Caribbean yielded scores of 3 and 8.

Easwaran will have an opportunity to strengthen his credentials, having been named in the Bharat-led India A squad for both the four-day games against South Africa A as well as in the expanded pool of Indian players for the intra-squad three-dayer. His inclusion, however, is subject to fitness.

The selectors have also handpicked Delhi fast-bowling allrounder Harshit Rana, Karnataka seamer Vidwath Kaverappa and Rajasthan left-arm spinner Manav Suthar for the four-dayers, on the back of their domestic performances. Rana and Suthar also impressed for India A during the Emerging Nations’ Asia Cup in July, and are part of a wider pool of players that have been earmarked by the NCA. Also in the mix for the red-ball games are prolific Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan and Tilak Varma.

India’s Test squad for South Africa

Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt), Prasidh Krishna.

India A squad for the first four-day match: Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sarfaraz Khan, KS Bharat (C)(wk), Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Pulkit Narang, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Tushar Deshpande.

India A squad for second four-day match: Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KS Bharat (C)(wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Navdeep Saini.