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 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, who had been under pressure, with Shubman Gill performing better in the two matches of the tour. However, Shaw was the opening batsman 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 matches of the tour, but more than the scores were his loose shots that worried.
As reasonable as it is to play Ashwin, this time, it could have been argued that a spinner should not be played 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. There is no doubt that Ashwin and Lyon have been the two leading spinners in Test cricket, followed only a little by Jadeja, during this decade.
In the case of the wicketkeeper, India dropped Pant, who has been preferred to Saha in Tests outside 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 facing 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 experience in Tests, 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 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.
