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The BCCI announced, this week, a 15-member squad for the ICC World Test Championship Final against Australia in June at the Oval. Recently, Sunil Gavaskar, while speaking on Star Sports, chose eleven players from the Indian squad, who he believes should don the whites for India in the marquee event.
Gavaskar picked the pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill to open the innings for India instead of KL Rahul. He pushed KL Rahul to the No.6 position in the lower middle order. He also backs KL Rahul instead of KS Bharat to don the wicket-keeping gloves for India in this important fixture. The No.3 and No.4 position were no-brainer picks as Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli will play in the middle order. Ajinkya Rahane will resume his regular position at No.5. "Then there will be Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, followed by Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami, and Mohd Siraj," revealed Gavaskar while speaking on Star Sports' Cricket Live.
The expert commentator backed Ajinkya Rahane’s selection and said, "Ajinkya Rahane finds himself in the WTC squad not because of his current IPL form, mind you, he was in a pretty decent form in the Ranji Trophy. He did very well for Mumbai in the domestic season." He reckoned that Rahane’s selection was the only change required from India’s previous squad. The 83-year-old did not pick Axar Patel, KS Bharat, Shardul Thakur, and Umesh Yadav who are a part of the 15-member squad.
This is the final playing XI picked by Sunil Gavaskar while speaking on Star Sports:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
The coveted World Test Championship Final will begin on June 7 and will go on till June 11. June 12 has been kept as a reserve day in case the weather decides to play spoilsport.