توقعت الهند أن تلعب الحادي عشر: لا يوجد فريق شوبمان جيل، واشنطن سوندار، مع آر أشوين

Predicted India Playing XI: With less than two days to go for the opening IND vs AUS Test in Perth, the only focus that the world has on, is ‘what would be India’s playing XI’ for the match? While no formal announcement has been made thus far, it is clear that Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami won’t be part of the match, and Jasprit Bumrah will lead the side in their absence.

Shumbam Gill is most likely injured too, and that doesn’t leave head coach Gautam Gambhir with many options at the moment. Ideally, he would have liked a different set of players, but..

At the top of the order, without any doubt will be Yashasvi Jaiswal, who would be playing his first Test in Australia. And alongside him, at the other end would be KL Rahul, who would be filling in for absent Rohit, and injured Shubman. Although he has a poor record there, and averages only 20 Down Under, but the team has to make the best use of available resources.

The middle-order will see an inexperienced Devdutt Padikkal, who has been in some terrific red-ball form, and has a lot to prove, for the future. Of course, he scored a fifty in his only Test vs England, but his 88 vs AUS A instill a lot of belief. Next, at no. 4 will be a struggling Virat Kohli, who has no tons to show this year.

2020-21 series hero, Rishabh Pant will be the batting mainstay this time around. IN 7 matches in AUS, he has 624 runs at an average of 62. So he is a certainty. And he will be followed by yet another keeper batter in Dhruv Jurel, who will pip Sarfaraz Khan. He scored a 93 in the Irani Trophy, and then returned with scores of 80 and 68 in the IND A vs AUS A match.

Nitish Reddy will edge past Harshit Rana as the all-rounder in the India Playing XI, and will be followed by R Ashwin. The pitch will offer no assistance to spinners, so the Tamil Nadu spinner will be preferred over Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja. Lastly, Bumrah picks himself as the main pacer and the skipper, to be followed by Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj. Prasidh for the simple reason, he was excellent in the IND A series, where he ended up picking 10 wickets in 2 matches.