India names Test XI for Adelaide: Shaw, Saha and Ashwin to start

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 asked itself two days before the Test: whether to continue backing the striking Shaw, whether to play with a bowler and persist with the safer option of Ashwin, and which of the wicketkeepers to choose. On the eve of the day-night Test, they cleared up all the confusion by naming the eleven players. Shaw had been under pressure, with Shubman Gill performing better in the two tour matches. 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 games of the tour, but more than the scores it was his loose shots that worried.

Similarly, the first-choice spin bowler, especially with Ravindra Jadeja’s absence 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.

As reasonable as it is to play Ashwin, there might have been an argument for not playing a spinner at all in the opening match of the series this time 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, 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 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 in the lower order.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