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 contemplated two days before the Test: whether to continue backing the flashy Shaw, whether to play with a spinner and persist with the safer option of Ashwin, and which of the wicketkeepers to choose.
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, who performed 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.
Despite scoring 0, 19, 40 and 3 in the two tour matches, it was his loose shots that worried.Similarly, the Test’s starting pitcher, especially with the absence of Ravindra Jadeja due to injury and concussion, kept his place.
The last time India chose not to play Ashwin in an opening match of a series was on the 2014-15 Australia tour.
It’s reasonable to play Ashwin, but this time, it could have been argued not to play 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.
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, however, India dropped the regular Pant, who has been preferred over Saha in Tests outside of Asia, where most of the wicketkeeping is done standing.
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.
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
