Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel fly direct from Brisbane to Kolkata for the first IND vs SA Test
Shubman Gill began his tenure as India’s Test captain with a nail-biting series against England before beating West Indies 2-0 at home.
A busy international schedule leaves the Indian core group little room to breathe. Just hours after the T20I series in Australia ended with a rain-affected arrival in Brisbane, Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar took a direct flight to Kolkata to join the Test team ahead of the first India vs South Africa Test which begins on November 14 at Eden Gardens.
The quartet, part of the white-ball and red-ball formations, will check in on Sunday evening alongside the entire South African contingent. The rest of India’s Test players, including KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj, will arrive in batches on Monday, with the first full training session scheduled for Tuesday.
Interestingly, several players from the Test squad, including Pant, Sudharsan, Rahul, Padikkal, Jurel, Siraj, Kuldeep and Akash Deep, are currently part of India A’s playing XI, against South Africa A. The Eden Test marks the continuation of India’s home game in the new cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC). In an encouraging series, India drew 2-2 against England earlier this year and followed it up with a 2-0 sweep against the West Indies, establishing a strong foundation for the 2025-27 campaign.
From T20I tests to IND vs SA tests
India’s rapid shift from T20 cricket to the red-ball format has become a familiar rhythm for players like Bumrah and Gill. Bumrah, who has featured sparingly in white-ball matches to manage the workload, will now lead India’s fast-paced attack against a South African unit that has not won a Test in India since 2015.
South Africa, who arrived with a full squad, will also begin training from Monday. The second Test of the series will be played in Guwahati from November 22. The last time these two teams met in a Test series, it ended 1-1 in South Africa, but the equation will be very different this time. Conditions going south, a new Indian leader and a team keen to build on the early momentum of the WTC. That said, the Calcutta and Guwahati locations may have more pacers than spinners!
Indian team for IND vs SA Tests
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK) (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep
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