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.
The main questions India was considering two days before the Test were: whether to continue backing the flashy Shaw, whether to play 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 confusion by naming the XI.
Shaw had been under pressure, with Shubman Gill performing better in the two tour matches, impressing figures like Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar.
However, Shaw was the opening batsman and proved 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, it was his loose shots that worried Gavaskar and Border. It is understood, however, that with a settled middle order, India wanted continuity at the top as well and stuck with the opener.
While it’s reasonable to play Ashwin, this time, one could have argued against playing a spinner at all 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 two best 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 management team believes that Saha’s superior wicketkeeping skills come into play when standing up to the spinners. The management team 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 down the order. India XI: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (captain), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
