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. These were the main questions India considered two days before the Test: whether to continue backing the energetic 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 had been under pressure, with Shubman Gill performing better in the two tour matches, impressing cricket legends. However, Shaw was the starting opener 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 tour matches, but more than the scores it was his loose shots that worried the connoisseurs. It is understood, however, that with a settled middle order, India also wanted continuity at the top and stuck with the starter.
While it’s reasonable to play Ashwin, this time, there might have been a case for not playing 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. Lyon’s success is perhaps a signal that world-class spinners have a chance to correct these statistics based on a small sample of seven tests. There is no doubt that Ashwin and Lyon have been the top two spinners in test cricket, followed only a little 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 team management believes that Saha’s superior wicketkeeping skills come into play when facing spinners. The team management 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 (capt.), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
