The 2023 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Test series is officially on, and in the first Test, which is taking place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, Team India will bowl first after Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first. Speaking at the toss, India skipper Rohit Sharma announced the playing XI for the hosts, and surprisingly, in-form batter Shubman Gill was left out of the playing XI. Team India continued with their first-choice opening combination of skipper Rohit and vice captain KL Rahul, despite Rahul struggling with form for quite some time now.
There were high chances that due to his rich form, Shubman would get the nod over Rahul, but Team India stuck with the Karnataka batter. Among other inclusions and omissions, Ravindra Jadeja is back in the side along with Mohammed Shami, but there was no place for Kuldeep Yadav in the side. India went with three spinners—R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel—and two pacers—Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj.
Suryakumar Yadav and KS Bharat were handed their Test debut caps, but the main talking point from the toss remains the surprise exclusion of Gill. In the last couple of months, no batter in world cricket has scored more runs than Gill, but despite that, India decided to leave him out of the playing XI to make way for Rahul.
The decision to drop Shubman for KL Rahul has gone down well with so many fans and former greats of Indian cricket who have slammed the team’s decision.
As for the Aussies, they have also made two changes in the playing XI from the last Test they played against South Africa in Sydney. In place of the world’s No. 4 Test batter, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb is included in the playing XI, and Ashton Agar makes way for Todd Murphy.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
