As Team India are gearing up to take on New Zealand in the first Test at Basin Reserve from February 21, there is a lot of debate going around the team composition.
Amid the speculations, skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday (February 19) addressed the media and dropped enough hints to indicate that veteran pacer Ishant Sharma and young batsman Prithvi Shaw will feature in the playing XI for the series opener.
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"He (Ishant) looked pretty normal and pretty similar to what he was bowling before the ankle injury. He is hitting good areas again and he has played (Test cricket) in New Zealand couple of times, so his experience will be useful to us. It was really good to see him bowling with pace and in good areas," Kohli said during the press conference.
Ishant joined the team earlier this week after recovering from the ankle injury that he sustained while playing for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy clash against Vidarbha last month.
Talking about the second opener, the Indian captain said the team wouldn't like to change Shaw's natural stroke-play which was enough to suggest that Shubman Gill will have to warm the bench for now.
"Prithvi is a talented player and he has his own game and we want him to follow his instincts and play the way he does. Look, these guys have no baggage and are not desperate to perform in any manner," he added.
Kohli wants Shaw to take a leaf out of Mayank Agarwal's performance in Australia back in 2018-19 when he hit back to back half-centuries in Melbourne and Sydney.
"They don't have any nerves to do well overseas. Like a clear head with which Mayank played in Australia, Prithvi can do the same in New Zealand.
"A bunch of guys playing with fearlessness, something that can motivate the whole team, gives us start that the team wants and not get intimidated by the opposition in any way."
He also downplayed the disappointing showing of Shaw and Agarwal during the ODI series in which India coped a rare 3-0 whitewash.
"Prithvi, I think you can call him relatively inexperienced and Mayank, I wouldn't call him that inexperienced because he has scored a lot of runs last year. So he understands what his game is like in Test cricket.
"I think sometimes in white ball cricket we try to do too much but once you come into red ball cricket, you fall into that disciplined mode of batting, which obviously suits him much more at this stage."
If India's net session on Wednesday is taken into account then Wriddhiman Saha seems to be a certain starter as wicketkeeper-batsman ahead of Rishabh Pant for the Wellington Test.
As per a PTI report, Pant had little to do at the main nets and was seen spending more time doing his keeping drills and only got an opportunity to bat when the first team completed its routines.
Hanuma Vihari, India’s designated No. 6 batsman for away Tests, is likely to be the fifth bowling option with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Ishant being three specialist pacers.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are in the mix for the lone specialist spinner's spot.
(With PTI inputs)
