Why India picked Nair and Arshdeep and left out Sarfaraz and Shami

This is a landmark selection for India. This is the first time since the tour of South Africa in 2013-14, India's first series after Sachin Tendulkar's retirement, that they embark on a big tour looking to create future superstars. There will naturally be plenty of questions. Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, answered them all. Well, most of them.

Everyone is eager to know how India's batting will line up now that all four of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are out, but that is a decision the selectors will leave to the team management of captain Shubman Gill, coach Gautam Gambhir and vice-captain Rishabh Pant. It does seem likely that Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul will open with B Sai Sudharsan to follow at No. 3 and Gill to take Kohli's No. 4 position.

Mohammed Shami played the Champions Trophy, and is playing the IPL, but his last Test was the WTC final in 2023. Since then he has played only one first-class match, in November 2024. He was just not fit for the strains of Test cricket.

"We've sort of been trying to get him fit for the series, of course, but he's had a little bit of a setback over the last week or so," Agarkar said. "He's got some MRIs done. I don't think he was going to be able to play five Tests, and at the moment I don't think his workload is where it needs to be. It is just the medical guys who've told us that he's been ruled out of this series. We were hoping that he's available for some part of the series at least, but if he's not fit at the moment it's very difficult to keep waiting."

India's only win of their 2024-25 tour of Australia, in Perth, came under Jasprit Bumrah, who also captained in Sydney when Rohit left himself out, but a stress reaction in his back meant he was unable to complete that Test, his fifth in a five-match series. That injury caused him to miss nearly five months of cricket.

India don't want to lose Bumrah the bowler when striving to get him to captain, which would mean he plays every Test. Plus the medical staff has advised the selectors that Bumrah is unlikely to be able to play all five Tests in England.

"He is more important to us as a player," Agarkar said. "We want him fit. There's always that extra burden when you're leading and managing 15-16 other people. There's a lot that it takes out of you. We'd rather have him bowling as well as he does than putting that extra burden on him. He is aware of it. We've had a chat with him, and he's okay with it. He knows where his body's at at the moment, and he'd rather look after himself and be bowling-fit."

From the squad that went to Australia, Harshit Rana has been replaced by Arshdeep Singh. While Rana has the physical ingredients needed for a Test bowler, he showed on his debut tour that he didn't have the control that he will perhaps acquire with a couple of full seasons of first-class cricket.

Arshdeep has not played a lot of first-class cricket in recent months - only five matches across the 2024-25 domestic season, three in the Duleep Trophy and two in the Ranji Trophy - but he brings the experience of five County Championship matches for Kent in 2023. As a left-arm swing bowler, he also brings a point of difference to the squad.

"He's had a little bit of experience of county cricket as well," Agarkar said. "Obviously plays every game that is available in domestic cricket. We've watched him, tall guy with the Dukes ball. There's [left-arm] variety but there's also body of work in red-ball cricket, and he's been in decent form over the last couple of years. He's just a quality bowler. We needed five seamers because Booms [Bumrah] is unlikely to play all five Test matches so we needed adequate cover. This provides us with a little bit of variety as well."

Sarfaraz Khan scored twin half-centuries in his debut Test, and stroked his way to 150 in Bengaluru as India fought a big deficit. He averages 37.10 after six Tests. He didn't get to play in Australia at all, however, and that perhaps is a signal that the team management has sent to the selectors, who have now picked a more experienced middle-order batter in Karun Nair.

"Sometimes we just have to make those decisions," Agarkar said. "Sarfaraz did play the three Test matches [against New Zealand] in India. I know he got a hundred in the first Test, didn't get runs [after that] and missed out in Australia. Sometimes those are decisions which the team management takes. Whether it's fair on somebody or unfair on someone, those are the choices that you make in the best interest of the team.

"At the moment, we felt Karun has put up heaps of runs over the last couple of seasons. He's played a little bit of Test cricket early in his career, has played a bit of county cricket. We feel that he's batting well enough. Also now with Virat not there, clearly lacking a little bit of experience in the batting. Jaiswal is touring [England] for the first time. I know Gill has played one Test match [there]. It's only KL and Pant who have played a series there before. So we felt Nair's experience could help. Sometimes it is going to be unfair on somebody else but eventually you've got to make choices."

When India went to Australia late last year, Shardul Thakur was making a comeback from a surgery and didn't have the bowling workload under his belt to get selected. When fit, he can provide balance by being the fourth seamer who can bat at No. 8. Through the Australia tour, India struggled because none of their three allrounders - Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar - could be used as a wicket-taking bowler in those conditions.

"Shardul is a bowling allrounder," Agarkar said. "With the way sometimes the team is structured, you need that seam-bowling option who can bat a bit. Nitish Reddy showed what he can do with the bat [in Australia], but yeah, he's a batting allrounder at this point. Hopefully his bowling keeps coming on as well."

Sai Sudharsan does seem to have an underwhelming first-class record: 29 matches and average under 40. Having said that, he has excited almost everyone who knows batting. He has a hundred against the touring England Lions and one when playing away against Australia A. He has a county hundred as well, albeit on a flat Trent Bridge track.

"Last year when England Lions came, he played the A tour," Agarkar said. "I watched it. He got runs there as well so it's not like he's not got runs in red-ball cricket. We've not picked him because of IPL. We've known he's a terrific red-ball player. He's shown the right temperament and seems to have the game to succeed at the top level. Once he plays we'll probably get to know a bit better, but seems to have the goods. I don't think his IPL performances have made us pick him for Test cricket. We've been looking at him for a while, at least since I've been here, for a couple of years, but there's never been any place in the team to pick [new] guys. Now that we've had this opportunity [he] certainly deserves it."

It is too early to say because the team management also looks at how players are going in the nets, but we can take an educated guess.

1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 B Sai Sudharsan, 4 Shubman Gill (capt), 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Karun Nair, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Shardul Thakur/Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Prasidh Krishna, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj.

The choice between Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav comes down to the conditions. If the pitch is not expected to help spin at all, it might be better to have a fourth seamer at No. 8. If there is spin expected, it is important to resist the temptation of playing a spinner just for his batting ability. If India do feel the need to play Washington Sundar or Nitish Reddy, it is ideal to do so at the expense of a batter.