Hyderabad: The Indian cricket team, led by captain Jasprit Bumrah, completed a couple of training sessions at the Optus Stadium in Perth ahead of the first Test commencing on November 22.
There would be a lot of changes to the usual Indian team’s playing XI given that Rohit Sharma is unavailable for the first Test, as he is in Mumbai on family duty, and Shubman Gill fracturing his thumb. That opens two places – with KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal or Abhimanyu Easwaran almost certain to start.
Yashasvi Jaiswal will open the innings along with KL Rahul with Padikkal might be slotted at number three. Rahul was in his element in the nets session and had a pretty long stint. He was a part of the India A vs Australia A unofficial Test match but failed to impress getting out on low scores in both the innings, with his dismissal in the second innings, leaving a spinners’ delivery alone, gathering a lot of criticism.
However, given that Rahul has already opened the innings and had good experience in playing in overseas conditions, he could be taking up the opener’s role at Perth.
Easwaran was all at sea against the moving ball at MCG and given that he batted with the bowlers in the nets, it is unlikely he might get a headstart, ahead of Padikkal.
Padikkal, the lanky left-hander, had a good outing in the India A vs Australia A matches and as soon as Rohit and Shubman were confirmed to be unavailable for the first Test, the think-tank and selectors wasted no time in asking Padikkal to stay back in Australia as a back-up.
Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant man the number four and five slot with Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan vying for one slot at number six.
The scales tilt in favour of Jurel, given how the batter had played in the India A vs Australia A unofficial Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne. Jurel also impressed in the match simulation that the Indian team took part at the WACA Ground in Perth in the last week.
Nitish Kumar Reddy might get the nod to play in the lower order as a bowling all-rounder and it gives India a handy lower order batter too. Indian team’s bowling coach Morne Morkel spent a lot of time with Nitish Kumar Reddy and the Hyderabad-based youngster might get the nod.
Ravichandran Ashwin would be the lone man in India’s spin department, especially given that Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey are left-handers and the off-spinner has a good record against Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith too.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj will be India’s new-ball bowlers and one of Harshit Rana, Akash Deep or Prasidh Krishna would get the nod to fill up one vacant slot in the lower order.
Siraj would have to take on an extra role in the bowling department, both with the new and old ball, especially given that Bumrah will be leading the side and will have to shoulder that extra responsibility.
The only chink in India’s armour – a fairly big one – is that among Padikkal, Jurel, Reddy, Rana and Prasidh, they only have a collective experience of less than 10 Test matches.
