India vs Sri Lanka | Vijay, Ashwin and Jadeja return to squad for SL Test series

The selectors have decided to recall Murali Vijay India's squad for the first two Test matches against Sri Lanka. The opener had been selected for India’s tour of Sri Lanka two months back but had to pull out owing to a wrist injury and he is pretty much the only change to the Indian side that whitewashed the Lankans. 

Vijay’s last appearance in the longest format came in March and since then the Tamil Nadu opener has missed all international games due to his injury. He did, however, represent TN in one Ranji Trophy match, the India Green in the Duleep Trophy along with four Twenty20 games in the Tamil Nadu Premier League. Even though he had a relatively poor Duleep Trophy, where he scored just 17 runs in two innings, his record in Indian colours has led to his return. He has played 51 Test matches for India, scoring nine centuries and over 3000 runs.

Players like Pujara, Ashwin, and Jadeja haven’t played on the international circuit since the Sri Lanka tour. However, they kept themselves match fit by plying their trade in County cricket. Even though he had a disappointing performance for Nottinghamshire where he could only manage 333 runs in 12 innings.  Since then, the Saurashtra batsman has managed scores of 35 and 13 in the Ranji Trophy.

Ashwin too tried his luck in England where he ended his four games with 20 wickets and 214 runs for Worcestershire. For Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, Ashwin has made two appearances this month claiming seven wickets. His bowling partner, Jadeja, created news last week by hitting 201 and claiming seven wickets in a match-winning performance for Saurashtra.

Full squad : Virat Kohli (Captain), KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-Captain), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma.