Why are Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer not playing today?

India have gone into the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur without batters Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer. There are two Test debutants in the Indian team - T20I batting star Suryakumar Yadav and keeper-batter KS Bharat.

Gill was part of the Indian Test squad during the previous series in Bangladesh, where he even notched up his maiden Test ton. However, with skipper Rohit Sharma back in the mix, India have gone with the opening combination of Rohit and KL Rahul.

The latter, being the vice-captain, has been retained in the playing XI despite his poor performance in the Bangladesh Tests, where he registered the highest score of 23 in four innings.

As for Shreyas, he was ruled out of the first Test against Australia due to the same back injury that kept him out of the white-ball series against New Zealand.

The Indian batter experienced swelling in his lower back and was even given an injection at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). However, he needs more time to recover and is expected to join the Indian squad ahead of the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Delhi, which begins on February 17.

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Meanwhile, Australia have won the toss and have opted to bat first in Nagpur in the opening Test of the four-match series.

Below are the playing XIs for the two teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (w), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland

While India have handed Test debuts to Suryakumar and Bharat, Australia have also given a Baggy Green to young off-spinner Todd Murphy.

Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer’s Test records

Gill is still looking to establish himself in the Test squad. He has played 13 games for India in the red-ball format so far, scoring 736 runs at an average of 32, with one hundred and four fifties. He registered his first Test ton in Bangladesh.

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Shreyas scored a hundred and fifty on his Test debut against New Zealand in Kanpur in November 2021. The 28-year-old has played seven Test matches and has scored 624 at an average of 56.72, with one century and five fifties.