IND vs SA: Ravichandran Ashwin Dropped! Sunil Gavaskar Makes 2 Changes To India XI For Second Test

Former captain Sunil Gavaskar has shared his views on India’s playing eleven for the second and final Test against South Africa. The match is scheduled to be played from January 3 in Cape Town.

India suffered a crushing defeat in the first Test at the SuperSport Park in Centurion last week. The Proteas thoroughly outplayed and outclassed India to win the Test inside three days. The Temba Bavuma-led side inflicted a humiliating innings defeat on the Rohit Sharma-led side.

The hosts won the first Test by an innings and 32 runs to take an unassailable lead in the two-match series. The defeat has also ended India’s hopes of winning their first-ever Test series in South Africa. Not only the batters but the bowlers failed to make an impact too despite bowling-friendly conditions.

In the first innings, India were bowled out for just 245 despite KL Rahul scoring a century. In reply, the home side piled up a huge total of 408 runs thanks to a sublime 185-run knock from opener Dean Elgar and half-centuries from David Bedingham (56) and Marco Jansen (84*).

Trailing by 163 runs, India came up with another poor batting performance in the second innings. They were bowled out for just 131 runs inside 35 overs. Only Virat Kohli (76) and Shubman Gill (26) managed to reach the double-digit mark during the disastrous batting display.

Sunil Gavaskar’s playing eleven for the second Test:

Speaking on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar said that he would not like India to make too many changes to the team combination despite the heavy defeat in the first Test. The former India skipper said that Ravindra Jadeja is likely to return to the team after missing the first Test due to a back spasm.

Sunil Gavaskar said that off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin would make way for Jadeja. The legendary batsman also opined that Mukesh Kumar could replace Prasidh Krishna in the team after the latter’s poor outing in the first Test.

“My playing XI would be, not too many changes, I think Jadeja will, once he is fit, walk back in the team at the expense of Ravichandran Ashwin. That’s what it looks to me because Ravichandran Ashwin was hardly used in the previous game,” said Sunil Gavaskar.

“There could be a change in terms of new ball bowling with Mukesh Kumar coming in place of Prasidh Krishna,” he added.

Sunil Gavaskar’s India Playing XI for Second Test:

Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar