India reveals its lineup 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 was considering two days before the Test: 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 cleared up all the confusion by naming the XI. Shaw had been under pressure with Shubman Gill performing better in the two matches of the tour. Shaw was the starting pitcher and showed in a four-inning stint 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 loose shots that worried. However, it is understood that, with a medium order established, India also wanted continuity at the top and stuck with the incumbent.
As reasonable as it is to play Ashwin, on this occasion, it could have been argued not to play a spinner at all in the first 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.
The success of Lyon is perhaps a sign that world-class bowlers 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 leading bowlers in test cricket, followed only a little by Jadeja, during this decade. In the case of the wicketkeeper, India dropped the regular Pant, who has been preferred over Saha in tests outside of Asia, where most of the wicketkeeping is done standing. It is in India where the team management believes Saha’s superior wicket-keeping skills come into play when standing up to the bowlers. The team’s management seems to have decided that the pink ball is too much and will require a more established goalkeeper. 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 hasn’t 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. 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