Having completely recovered from a back injury, seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was on Tuesday recalled to the 16-member Indian team for the final three Test matches against England, while veteran opener Gautam Gambhir was shown the door.
Bhuvneshwar, who produced a game-changing five-wicket haul against New Zealand in Kolkata, has been out of action for more than six weeks due to a back injury.
Post recovery, he played a Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai as per team protocol. He took wickets in the match and bowled a total of 36 overs (13 in 1st innings and 23 in the 2nd innings).
While spinners have dominated India's bowling composition, Bhuvneshwar's variations and his recent match winning exploits in Test cricket gives skipper Virat Kohli another option with four specialist pacers in the squad.
For the 35-year-old Gambhir, a veteran of 58 Tests, it could well be the end of the road as far as his international career is concerned.
While Kl Rahul did not set the stage on fire at Visakhapatnam, his recent form before injury prompted the team management to invest in his immense talent.
Murali Vijay is an assured presence at the top of the order and a fit Shikhar Dhawan means the reserve opener's slot is for Rahul. Also Dhawan is still an important fixture in the limited overs format where he has an impressive record.
All the permutations and combinations do indicate that Gambhir, who has played a key role in two World Cup finals (World T20 in 2007 and World Cup 2011) may well have ran his last lap as far as the national team is concerned.
Squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (Vice- Captain), Kl Rahul, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (Wicket Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya.
Kohli shoots up to fourth
DUBAI: India captain Virat Kohli reached a career-high fourth position in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen after producing a man of the match performance in the second Test against England which India won by 246 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Kohli is currently top-ranked in Twenty20 Internationals and has also held the top position in One-Day Internationals, but has never moved above 10th place in Tests.
However, his sublime knocks of 167 and 81 in Visakhapatnam have helped him jump 10 slots and cross the 800-point mark for the first time, becoming only the 11th India batsman to do so.
For his efforts in Visakhapatnam, Kohli has earned 97 points. The 28-year-old from Delhi now trails second-ranked Joe Root of England by 22 points. Another strong performance in the Mohali Test, which begins on Saturday will mean he will edge closer in his quest to top the batting table.
Middle-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has gained one place to reach ninth rank after scoring 119 and one, while the England pair of wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow and all-rounder Ben Stokes have also made significant gains.
Bairstow has moved up four places to reach 12th position after scoring 53 and 34 not out, while Stokes has moved up five slots to 28th position after scoring 70 and six.
In the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, India fast bowler Mohammad Shami has gained five places to reach a career-high 21st rank and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja has moved up one position to sixth place. For England, Stuart Broad (up one place) and Moeen Ali (up four places), have achieved fifth and 23rd positions, respectively.
New Zealand's eight-wicket win over Pakistan in a low-scoring first Test in Christchurch did not result in much upward movement for batsmen. New Zealand's Bradley-John Watling has gained two places to take 36th place, Henry Nicholls has moved up three slots to reach 79th position and debutant opener Jeet Raval has entered the rankings in 60th position after knocks of 55 and 36 not out.