India Confirm Playing XI For The 1st Test Against Australia; Prithvi Shaw Preferred Over Shubman Gill
The BCCI on Wednesday announced the playing XI for the day-night Test in Adelaide. India picked Prithvi Shaw as the 2nd opener and opted for Wriddhiman Saha over Rishabh Pant.
Team India, on Wednesday (December 16) has announced their playing XI for the first Test of the 4-Match series against Australia, starting from December 17 in Adelaide.
The visitors, on Wednesday, went against their usual trend by announcing their playing XI, a day before the start of the first Test against Australia. The series opener is going to be a day-night Test played with pink balls from December 17.
Virat Kohli will lead the team India in the first Test and will hand over the team to Ajinkya Rahane for the rest of the three Tests. Kohli will head back after playing the Test opener to be with his wife Anushka Sharma who is going to give birth to their first child in January.
The playing XI of team India, however, might raise some eyebrows as Prithvi Shaw, who wasn’t performed well in the warm-up matches, preferred over in-form Shubman Gill as the second opener along with Mayank Agarwal.
Shaw had flopped in 3 of the 4 innings he played in the two warm-up matches, scoring 0, 19, 40 and 3 runs. Gill, on the other hand, looked fluent in both innings of the second practice game which was played under lights with pink balls at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
As long as a wicket-keeper batsman is concerned, Wriddhiman Saha is preferred over Rishabh Pant.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin has been picked as the lone spinner ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav while Hanuma Vihari has retained his place in the middle-order thanks to his performance in the second tour match in which he hit a hundred.
Vihari can play the role of the second spinner in the team who can chip in with a few overs if needed. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav will lead the fast-bowling attack.
Here is Team India’s Final Playing XI:
Virat Kohli (c), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Team India Test Squad:
Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj
