With just one day to go for the first Test of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series between India and Australia in Nagpur, anticipation and predictions are at an all-time high.
Many former cricketers have come up with their ideal Indian playing XI, especially after having the first look at the pitch at the VCA stadium in Nagpur and the most recent one to do it was Dinesh Karthik.
India and Australia are set to lock horns in an important series that will have major World Test Championship implications and the lineup for both teams have been a hot topic of discussion in recent days.
The big question for India is who should open the innings with Rohit Sharma- Shubman Gill or KL Rahul and who will keep wickets- Ishan Kishan or KS Bharat. Another headache for the hosts is to who will partner Ashwin and Jadeja in the spin department- Akshar Patel or Kuldeep Yadav.
Karthik took to Twitter to share his preferred India playing XI for the Nagpur Test and he went with KL Rahul over Shubman Gill as Rohit Sharma’s opening partner.
He actually omitted Gill from the XI altogether, as he went with Suryakumar Yadav at the no.5 spot after Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. Karthik picked KS Bharat as the wicketkeeper while apart from Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin, he chose Akshar Patel as the third spinner.
For the pacers, he chose Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj.
My 11 for first test: Kl Rohit Pujara Virat SKY Jadeja K S Bharat Ashwin Axar Shami Siraj," tweeted Dinesh Karthik.
