Ace Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been named as the vice-captain of the Indian Test squad for the two Test Test series against the West Indies next month. This is his first time in this position although Ravindra Jadeja has been vice-captain in ODIs and T20Is in the past. Shubman Gill will lead India in his second Test series after debuting in England earlier this year, but the injured Rishabh Pant, who was the vice-captain on the tour of England hasn’t recovered sufficiently to make the squad.
Rishabh Pant, who had fractured his foot while batting in the fourth Test in England is currently recovering at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Dhruv Jurel and N Jagadeesan are the two specialist wicket-keepers in the squad, with Jurel expected to be the first choice to stand behind the stumps.
Jasprit Bumrah is also part of the squad, although there is only a few days gap between the Asia Cup final on September 28 in Dubai and the start of the first Test against West Indies from October 2 in November. From the expanded squad that toured England, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh and Shardul Thakur have missed out along with Pant. Abhimanyu, Akash Deep and Kamboj has been included in the Rest of India squad for the Irani Cup, which will be played against Vidarbha from October 1 in Nagpur.
Out of them, Akash Deep had reported to the CoE recently to recover from a niggle he had picked up in England, which kept him out of the Duleep Trophy and recent India A matches. Coming in are Axar Patel, Devdutt Padikkal and Jagadeesan, who had been flown in for the final Test after Pant picked up his injury.
Ajit Agarkar gives his views on the exclusion of Karun Nair
On the exclusion of Karun Nair, who had scored 205 runs in eight innings in England with a best of 57, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar held a press conference in Dubai while announcing the squad. He said:
“We expected more from Karun. Padikkal offers a little more at this point. Wish we could give everyone 15-20 Tests, unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. Padikkal was in the Test squad in Australia, played against England in Dharamsala, got a fifty there. He’s shown some decent form. Frankly, we expected a bit more from Karun.”
Meanwhile, one of Nair’s likely replacements, Sarfaraz Khan is currently recovering from an injury. The rest of the squad looks familiar, and with spin expected to play a bigger part at home than pace, India have named Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Axar as three spin-bowling all-rounders as well as Kuldeep Yadav. Nitish Kumar Reddy is the fast bowling all-rounder with Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna as the frontline pacers.
Ajit Agarkar’s views on Jasprit Bumrah’s availability & Ravindra Jadeja
About Jasprit Bumrah, it had been confirmed that before the five-Test tour of England that he would play only three Tests to manage his workload. Commenting on that topic, Ajit Agarkar said:
“This team has been picked for both the Tests, so he’s available for both Tests. We’ve had a fair break after England. He didn’t play the fifth Test at the Oval either. So there’s been a five-week break. Even this tournament Asia Cup has been fairly spaced out till last week. So no, he’s ready and keen to play both Test matches.”
India’s two match series starts on October 2 in Ahmedabad and October 10 in Delhi is their second of six series in the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle. Their cycle began with the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series in England, where India drew the five-Test series 2-2. Having earned 28 out of the maximum of 60 available points for five Tests, India are third in the WTC points table, with 46.67 percentage points. Australia and Sri Lanka are above them with 100 and 66.67 percentage points respectively. West Indies have zero percentage points, having lost three Tests to Australia in June-July.
India’s squad for the West Indies Tests
Shubman Gill (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, N Jagadeesan (wk).
It remains to be seen what the playing XI will be from this squad and then how they fare and perform against West Indies who will too be determined to do well. India though will start as favourites at this point in time ahead of the West Indies series.