Rishabh Pant returns, Sarfaraz Khan to be dropped: India's Likely XI for 1st Test vs Bangladesh

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India begin their season of 10 Test matches with a two-match series at home against Bangladesh. The national team has gone through a rare month-long break while some of the senior players have gone without any cricket for even longer. Hence, apart from this being the start of India's Test season and their return to the longest format after more than six months, this is also a return to international cricket for the players after a rare break.

There will hence be a number of players to keep an eye on but the one in focus is the most is arguably going to be Rishabh Pant. His last Test match was in December 2022, just a few days before a deadly car crash put a freeze on his career for more than a year.

Pant returned to international cricket in the T20 World Cup and was an integral part of India's run to the title. While Dhruv Jurel and KL Rahul performed exceptionally as wicketkeeper-batters in his absence, it is no surprise that the 26-year-old has been brought back into the side as soon as he was available as Pant was pretty much India's most consistent and in-form batter in Test cricket for nearly two years before his accident.

While Jurel will hence be on the bench, Rahul will be back in the squad as a pure batter, with head coach Gautam Gambhir indicating that Sarfaraz Khan may have to wait for his chance to arrive.

Kuldeep Yadav to back up Ashwin and Jadeja

India are also likely to go for a three-pronged spin attack, unless the conditions for this series are favouring pacers, which was the case the last time Bangladesh toured the country. If that is the case though, one can expect a three-pronged pace battery of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep. However, that is highly unlikely and so one can expect India to bring in Kuldeep Yadav along with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Kuldeep's stature has skyrocketed in recent years and he has also proven to be a handy lower-order batter. It is hence likely that he will be preferred over Axar Patel as a better wicket-taking option. Siraj is also expected to be favoured over Akash Deep as Bumrah's fast bowling partner.

There will also be a lot of eyes on Bumrah, who will be playing his first match since final of the 2024 T20 World Cup. Bumrah was expected to be rested for this series as well and was a surprise inclusion when the squad was announced for the first Test. The fact that he has been called up is an indicator of how seriously India are taking Bangladesh in this series, especially after the latter whitewashed Pakistan away from home.