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Jasprit Bumrah has been named vice-captain of the Indian Test side after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the 15-man squad for the Test series against New Zealand on Friday (Oct 11).

The selectors have shown faith in the same squad that beat Bangladesh 2-0 in the home Test series in September as Sarfaraz Khan retains his place.

The three-match Test series will start on Wednesday (Oct 16) in Bengaluru.

With the Australia Test series to come in November, the New Zealand series was looked at as a warm-up for it.

Big names like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli keep their place in the squad with Sarfaraz also in contention after impressing domestically.

He scored a match-winning hundred for Mumbai in that tournament in the Irani Cup which cemented his place in the squad.

Bumrah on the flip side is the vice-captain as he wins the race for the deputy role to Rohit Sharma.

With Rohit unlikely to play in the opening Test against Australia in the Perth Test next month, the talk surrounding the vice-captain role had intensified.

However, that race has been won by Bumrah as he won the confidence of the selectors panel led by Ajit Agarkar.

On the other hand, Gill and Jaiswal will keep their places and return after missing out on the T20I squad due to workload management.

Both are expected to be the opening pair in case Rohit is not available for Team India.

Having been awarded the vice-captaincy, Bumrah will look to play an even more proactive role in the team’s strategy on the field.

The right-arm seamer played both Tests against Bangladesh and hence is also likely to be rested for at least one Test against New Zealand ahead of the all-important five-match Test tour to Australia.

Mohammed Shami continues to recover
Meanwhile, apart from him, the rest of the squad looks the same as fast bowler Mohammed Shami continues to recover from his ankle injury and is likely to play a few matches in the Ranji Trophy before making his comeback to the team.

Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mayank Yadav and Prasidh Krishna have been named as travelling reserves.

Left-arm seamer Yash Dayal, who earned his maiden India call-up for Bangladesh Tests, has also missed out from the team with the Ranji Trophy season beginning.

In the upcoming series, India might look to give opportunities to players who didn’t feature against Bangladesh namely Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav to keep them match-ready ahead of the Australia series.

After the first Test in Bengaluru, India and New Zealand will play the second and third Test in Pune and Mumbai respectively.