(Cricket news) India will be taking on Australia for a crucial 4 match Test series at home. The series will determine the fate of the World Test Championship final as men in blue need to win in order to qualify. India are by no means at full strength as their highest scorer of the WTC 2021-23 cycle Rishabh Pant is out of the entire series.
Highest Indian wicket taker of the cycle Jasprit is out of the first two Tests at least. Shreyas Iyer who has been in incredible form is as good as rules out from the first Test as he hasn’t been seen in the nets yet. India have a couple of very tough calls to take when it comes to selecting a playing XI.
India’s ideal playing XI –
Openers: Rohit Sharma & KL Rahul
India’s skipper and deputy are almost guaranteed to play. There are question marks over Rahul’s form but with him being vice captain it is very unlikely that he is left out. In the last series against Bangladesh he led India to a 2-0 victory. On top of that the last Border-Gavaskar trophy in India back in 2017 was a very good one for KL Rahul.
Ever since his comeback in this format he hasn’t played a home Test so it will be interesting to see how he goes about things. With Shreyas Iyer not there he could bat in the middle order with Gill stepping in to open. Rohit Sharma has a very good record at home but this will be a very big challenge. His captaincy will be put to test against this Australian side.
Middle order: Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli & Shubman Gill
Cheteshwar Pujara’s form has been really good and he will be very important. Last time around in 2017, he was the highest run scorer and the batter will be looking to emulate the same. Virat Kohli will be looking to break his century drought in this format as he has done with the other two formats.
Kohli will have to work on his problems against spinners as Nathan Lyon will be a very tough customer to deal with. Shreyas Iyer would’ve been at number but with him likely to be ruled out Gill is the ideal candidate. Suryakumar Yadav or Ishan Kishan could be handed their debuts but it is tough to leave Gill out having seen his form across all formats.
Wicket-keeper: KS Bharat
Bharat has a big task of replacing Pant and that too in his debut Test match. There were suggestions that KL Rahul may be asked to keep wickets but Bharat is the safer option. He is an excellent gloveman and you need someone like that to keep to India’s premium spinners.
The big issue is that with Bharat, India don’t have a left hander in the top 6 which could force the management into playing Ishan Kishan. However the Andhra keeper definitely deserves a chance having traveled with the team for quite some time now. It will be interesting to see where he bats as all of India’s all-rounders could bat ahead of him.
Spin bowling all-rounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel & Ravichandran Ashwin
India is blessed to have 3 high quality spinners who are also really good with the bat. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja pick themselves. It is difficult to leave Kuldeep Yadav out but Axar Patel with his record needs to be in the team even though it means that India will not have a wrist spinner. Things could change depending as India may even have to play 3 seamers. Having said that in typical Indian conditions 3 spinners is the right way to go.
Seamers: Mohammed Shami & Mohammed Siraj
Shami and Siraj pretty much pick themselves even though Umesh Yadav’s record in Indian conditions is really good. Siraj in particular has been in incredible form across formats that he will be really important with the new ball and indeed when the ball starts to reverse. Shami more often than not delivers the goods and even if he doesn’t pick up too many wickets he will be a headache for the Aussies.
Bench: Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
Also read: India women lose warm up game against Australia by 44 runs
