Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Indian team in the absence of Virat Kohli during the inaugural Test against Afghanistan.

The Indian management had decided to send Kohli to England to play county cricket for Surrey in June to get some runs under his belt in English conditions after he had a miserable tour last time in 2014 when he averaged 13.4 in five Tests.

Middle-order batsman Karun Nair replaced Kohli in the Indian team which will take on Afghanistan in the country’s first-ever Test in Bangalore from June 14-18.

Interestingly, fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, who were integral members of the Indian team during their previous tour of South Africa, have not been selected for the Test.

While Bhuvneshwar has just recovered from a back injury, the workload of Bumrah is a concern as he has become an indispensable member of the Indian team across formats.

Also, there was no place in the team for Rohit Sharma, which means his Test career is on hold at the moment.

India Test squad for Afghanistan Test

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur