India announce final 12 for the first Test against Australia
The Indian team management announced the final 12 for the first Test against Australia to be played at Adelaide Oval on December 6. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav have been left out as India have opted to go in with three pacers and a solitary spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin.
Otherwise, there are no major surprises in the side with Rishabh Pant taking care of the wicketkeeping duties while KL Rahul and Murali Vijay will open the innings. Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane will make up the middle-order while the only other question mark in the batting line-up will be the sixth batsman as it will be a toss-up between Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari.
As far as bowling is concerned, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma will be the three pace bowlers while Ravichandran Ashwin was picked as the solitary spinner for the first Test match.
That means that the trio of Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja miss out on the first Test of the tour.
The real question is whether Hanuma Vihari, who scored a half-century during his debut test match against England at Oval in tough England conditions will be the sixth batsman or whether it will be Rohit Sharma, who will be making a comeback into the Test team after playing his last match during the tour of South Africa at Centurion.
Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, this is India’s best chance of winning their maiden Test series Down Under especially in the absence of David Warner and Steve Smith. The focus will be on Indian batsmen and how they cope with a top quality bowling line up that consists of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon.
On the two overseas tours so far in 2018, apart from Virat Kohli rest of Indian batsmen struggled and could not post big totals. If the Indian batting clicks, then Bumrah, Ishant, Shami, and Ashwin can trouble the inexperienced batting line-up of Australia.
Despite the fact that India has only won five Tests in Australia, the composition of both sides means that it promises to be a cracking series.
Here is a look at India's final 12 for the first Test at Adelaide:
India's final 12: KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.