India defines its XI for the Adelaide Test: Shaw, Saha and Ashwin starters

India Reveals Its XI for the Adelaide Test

Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, and Prithvi Shaw will represent India in the Adelaide Test. Umesh Yadav will be the third fast bowler. These were the main questions India asked itself two days before the Test: whether to continue supporting the flamboyant Shaw, whether to play with a bowler 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 their XI. Shaw had been under pressure, with Shubman Gill performing better in the two tour matches. However, Shaw was the starting opener and proved in a four-run innings in New Zealand that he can be destructive. He scored 0, 19, 40 and 3 in the two tour matches, but more than the scores, it was his loose shots that worried.

Similarly, the Test’s starting bowler, especially with the absence of Ravindra Jadeja due to injury and concussion, kept his place. The last time India chose not to have Ashwin in an opening match of the series was on the 2014-15 Australia tour, a decision that was criticized for presenting Karn Sharma, whose lack of experience was noted on a field where Australia’s bowler, Nathan Lyon, proved to be the game changer.

In the case of the wicketkeeper, however, India dropped the regular Pant, who has been preferred to Saha in Tests outside of Asia, where most of the wicketkeeping work is done standing back. It is in India where the team management believes that Saha’s superior skills as a wicketkeeper come into play when facing the bowlers. The team management seems to have decided that the pink ball does a lot and will require a more pure and established 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 still not played for India in any international cricket match 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 lower 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