Get ready to be surprised. The India cricket team is going to make some big changes for the Boxing Day Test. Captain Rohit Sharma is expected to return back to his opening spot, and KL Rahul, who has been Team India’s best batter in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, might be pushed down to number 3.
Nitish Reddy out, Washington Sundar in
According to the Times of India, Nitish Kumar Reddy will be dropped for Washington Sundar as Team India is likely to opt to play two spinners, the other being Ravindra Jadeja, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This move suggests that the Indian think tank reckons the ‘G’ will offer spin.
However, to drop Nitish Reddy, who has been probably Team India’s best batter after KL Rahul, doesn’t seem like the right choice. The bowling hasn’t been that great, and reinforcing it by adding Washington, who’s a proficient batter, makes sense but not at the cost of losing Nitish, who, in the first Test series, has saved Team India at least twice already.
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Where will Shubman Gill bat?
It’s unsure whether Shubman Gill will be asked to bat at number six or whether he’ll be dropped and someone like Dhruv Jurel or Sarfaraz Khan might be slotted in the middle. Gill’s away record is very ordinary (616 runs in 22 innings at an average of 30.80), and it might not be a shock that he’s dropped.
For the unaware, Gill was asked to bat in the middle-order before he was slotted at number three, but the youngster vehemently denied batting in the middle-order. Following this, the management dropped him from opener to one down. With his spot on the line, he might just follow whatever Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma tell him to do.
India’s Probable XI for Boxing Day Test
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shubman Gill/Dhruv Jurel/Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
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