Former India spinner and national selector Sunil Joshi has made a surprising choice while naming his Team India XI for the first Test against Australia of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 series which will begin in Nagpur on February 9.
India will need to the aggressive from the start as they will be eager to confirm a spot in the ICC World Test Championship 2023 final and need to win the series by a margin of two or three Tests. Meanwhile, Australia has one foot in the final already.
India will be captained by Rohit Sharma and the debate is about who will open with him in the first Test with Shubman Gill and KL Rahul being the contenders and who will bat at the no.5 spot vacated due to injury to Shreyas Iyer.
IND v AUS 2023: Wasim Jaffer picks India’s XI for Nagpur Test, slots Shubman Gill in middle-order
Sunil Joshi, who was part of the previous Chetan Sharma-led BCCI selection committee, shared his choices for the Indian XI for the first Test and in a surprise, decided to leave out Cheteshwar Pujara.
He picked Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma as the openers and instead of Pujara, who has been a rock at the no.3 position for India, Joshi decided to name Suryakumar Yadav, who is yet to play a Test match. He mentioned in the bracket that Yadav needs to be given the first look.
He then went with Virat Kohli and slotted KL Rahul at the no.5 spot. KS Bharat was picked as the wicketkeeper over Ishan Kishan and Jadeja and Ashwin were the two spin all-rounders picked by Joshi.
He then went with Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner and named Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj as the two pacers.
Joshi tweeted: “Will India line up like this in the first test? Deliberation between Pujara & Surya,a tough draw between both lefties Kuldeep &Axar. Here’s my XI: R Sharma, Shubhman Gill, Surya (should get first look in ), V Kohli, KL Rahul, KS Bharat, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Kuldeep Y, M Shami, M Siraj”
