India reveals its lineup for the Adelaide Test
Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, and Prithvi Shaw have been selected to represent India in the Adelaide Test. Umesh Yadav will be the third fast bowler. These were the main questions India contemplated two days before the Test: whether to continue backing the energetic Shaw, whether to play a spinner and persist with the safer option of Ashwin, and which of the wicketkeepers should play. On the eve of the day-night Test, they resolved all the confusion by naming the XI. Shaw had been under pressure with Shubman Gill performing better in the two matches of the tour. However, Shaw was the starting opener and demonstrated in a four-inning stint in New Zealand that he can be destructive. He scored 0, 19, 40 and 3 in the two matches of the tour, but more than the scores were his loose shots that worried.
As reasonable as it is to play Ashwin, this time, there might have been a case for not playing a spinner in the opening match of the series because in day-night Tests in Australia, spinners have averaged 49 despite Lyon’s superlative average of 25 in these matches. Lyon’s success is perhaps a sign that world-class spinners have the opportunity to correct these statistics based on a small sample of seven Tests. There is no doubt that Ashwin and Lyon have been the top two spinners in Test cricket, followed only slightly by Jadeja, during this decade.
In the case of the wicketkeeper, however, India dropped the incumbent Pant, who has been preferred to Saha in Tests outside of Asia, where most of the wicketkeeping is done standing up. It is in India where the team management believes that Saha’s superior wicketkeeping skills come into play when facing spinners. The team management seems to have decided that the pink ball does a lot and will require a more established pure wicketkeeper. And despite Pant’s century in the SCG warm-up, he had an ordinary tour of New Zealand, scoring 60 runs in four innings. He has not yet played for India in any international cricket since then.
Yadav was the favorite to be India’s third fast bowler, replacing the injured Ishant Sharma. Not only does he have Test experience, this is his fourth tour of Australia, but he also impressed in the only warm-up match he played, taking 3 for 48 and 1 for 14 and also scoring useful runs in the order.India XI: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt.), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
