There is a lot of anticipation surrounding the two-match Test series between India and South Africa, slated to get underway on December 26 in Centurion.
Ahead of the Boxing Day Test, legendary spinner Harbhajan Singh named his ideal playing XI for Team India as they look to change their bleak record on South African soil.
India are yet to win a Test series in South Africa despite touring the country since 1992. The best result for the visiting Indian team in the Rainbow Nation so far is 1-1 draw during the 2010-11 tour.
Harbhajan believes India would need to post a competitive score of more than 400 and, thus, he went with a star-studded batting line-up.
He also picked veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ahead of seam-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur in India’s playing XI.
"According to me Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will open. Shubman Gill would come in at number three and the fourth spot will be for Virat Kohli. The fifth and sixth spots belong to Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul respectively. For number seven Ravindra Jadeja but the biggest question comes at number 8 with Ashwin and Shardul available. I feel Ashwin should play at number 8 because you have Jasprit Bumrah for number 9, Siraj for 10 and Prasidh Krishna for 1," Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel.
While Harbhajan wants Ashwin to play, he doesn’t feel that the latter will be preferred in the playing XI.
"But here I feel the conditions will be hot, the pitch will be hard, the bounce will be there and you have three pacers so I think India should go with two spinners. I feel South Africa would love to place pace so I think you should play on your strength I feel Ashwin should play but I don't see that happening," he added.
Harbhajan backed the decision to pick Ashwin by recalling the situation that India faced during the WTC final against Australia at the Oval earlier this year.
"The biggest debate is whether Shardul should play or Ashwin, this topic became a heated discussion during the World Test Championship. The conditions there were different because the ball seams on Day 1 so I feel Shardul was the right choice according to those conditions. There was a lot of grass on the wicket, even though he couldn't make an impact I feel the decision was right," Harbhajan said.
India squad for South Africa Tests:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Abhimanyu Easwaran, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk)
(With ANI Inputs)
