The Indian cricket team is scheduled to take on Australia in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test series at the Gabba in Brisbane from December 14 onwards. After winning the first Test by a big margin of 295 runs in Perth, India succumbed to a tough 10-wicket defeat in the second Test in Adelaide, a day-night pink ball contest, which meant that the series was level at 1-1.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah has been by far the best performer across the two BGT Test matches, captaining them to a win in the first Test before keeping them in the hunt with the ball in the second Test. Some of the other top players in the team, including the likes of captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in particular, need to step up to the plate, to help India become more competitive in the remainder of the series.
In this article, SportsTiger looks at India’s probable playing XI versus Australia or the third Test at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Openers: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul
Yashasvi Jaiswal has had a mixed bag in terms of performances in the first two Tests of the BGT series, getting dismissed without troubling the scorers in the first innings twice, while also scoring a fantastic 161 in Perth in the second innings. After being promoted at the top of the order in the absence of Rohit Sharma, right-hander KL Rahul has been quite impressive with the bat for India in tough batting conditions in the first two matches.
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Middle Order: Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Rohit Sharma (c)
After sitting out of the first Test due to an injury, Shubman Gill returned to the Indian side in Adelaide, and got a couple of starts at a decent scoring rate before being dismissed by Mitchell Starc against the run of play. Virat Kohli brought up his 30th Test hundred last month in the Perth Test, but his other three innings have yielded low scores while being dismissed around the corridor of uncertainty by three different bowlers.
Rishabh Pant has been quite aggressive in his ways with the bat in the first two Tests of the BGT series, which hasn’t been enough for him to get a big score yet, while his wicket-keeping hasn’t been quite up to his usual standards because of a few drop catches. Captain Rohit Sharma decided to demote himself to No. 6 in the batting order after arriving late in Australia due to personal reasons, and his decision wasn’t fruitful as he got dismissed twice for a single-digit score.
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All-Rounders: Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar
Nitish Kumar Reddy has been quite exceptional with the bat for India in the lower middle order, getting valuable 30s and 40s in the first two matches of his Test career, apart from picking up a couple of wickets with the ball. Washington Sundar was quite steady with the bat and ball during India’s big win in the first Test in Perth before he was replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin in the second Test, and it is likely that the Indian team management does swap them around once again for the third Test.
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Following a disappointing performance from Harshit Rana in the second Test in Adelaide, it is expected that the Indian team management replaces him with Akash Deep, who was quite impressive with the ball on docile surfaces at home against New Zealand ahead of the BGT series. Jasprit Bumrah has been head and shoulders above every bowler in the Indian cricket team in the Test series against Australia, which is why it will be very important for Mohammed Siraj to back him up better at the Gabba in Brisbane.
