No Shubman Gill And Rishabh Pant As India Pick Prithvi Shaw And Wriddhiman Saha In Their Playing XI For Adelaide

In a major update, the Virat Kohli-led Team India has confirmed the playing XI for the 1st Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] confirmed the same via a tweet on its official account. As was expected after Virat Kohli’s virtual press-conference, where he had signaled that Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal will be opening the innings, the same has been confirmed by the release of the official playing XI.

Prithvi Shaw, who had scored a half-century in his last Test innings for India against New Zealand, has retained his place despite being outscored by Shubman Gill in the two warm-up games. Kohli had dropped a subtle hint about the same in the virtual press-conference ahead of the first Test. He had said-

“Shubman has not gotten opportunities at this level yet in Test cricket, as and when he gets an opportunity, it would be interesting to see how he goes about things because he is a very confident young man. Prithvi has performed at the Test level but he would be playing in Australia for the first time. I think it is very exciting to see his progress as well,” Virat Kohli said at the press conference on Wednesday.

UPDATE?: Here’s #TeamIndia’s playing XI for the first Border-Gavaskar Test against Australia starting tomorrow in Adelaide. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/WbVRWrhqwi

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 16, 2020

 

Wriddhiman Saha pips Rishabh Pant; Umesh Yadav pips Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini in India’s playing XI

The middle-order is a no-brainer with Cheteshwar Pujara, skipper Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Hanuma Vihari taking up the 3,4,5, and 6 spots. Another massive update is that Wriddhiman Saha has been picked over Rishabh Pant as the first-choice keeper. Saha had scored a match-saving 50 in the first warm-up game but his position had come under threat after Pant smashed a whirlwind 73-ball 103 in the succeeding game.

This will be the first time that Pant will sit out of an overseas Test ever since he made his debut against England in 2018.

As far as the bowling group is concerned, Ravichandran Ashwin has been picked as the lone spinner while Umesh Yadav, who impressed in the first warm-up game will partner the duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami in the pace department.

 

India’s playing XI for Adelaide Test-

Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah