Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, and Prithvi Shaw will represent India in the Adelaide Test. Umesh Yadav completes the trio of fast bowlers. These were the main questions India was asking two days before the Test: whether to continue supporting the energetic Shaw, whether to play with a spinner and persist with the safer option of Ashwin, and which of the wicketkeepers to 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 tour matches. However, Shaw was the starting opening batsman and proved in a four-inning in New Zealand that he can be destructive.
He scored 0, 19, 40 and 3 in the two games of the tour, but more than the scores, it was his weak shots that worried.Similarly, the Test’s titular spinner, especially with the absence of Ravindra Jadeja due to injury and concussion, kept his place. The last time India chose not to include Ashwin in an opening match of the series was on the 2014-15 Australia tour.
It’s reasonable to play Ashwin, but on this occasion, there might have been an argument for not playing a spinner at all in the series opener because in day-night Tests in Australia, spinners have averaged 49 despite Lyon’s superlative average of 25 in these matches.
In the case of the wicketkeeper, India left out the regular Pant, who has been preferred to Saha in Tests outside of Asia, where most of the wicketkeeping is done standing back. It is in India where the team management believes that Saha’s superior wicketkeeping skills come into play when standing up to the spinners. The team management seems to have decided that the pink ball does a lot and will require a more established pure wicketkeeper.
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.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
