India will face Australia in a four-match Test series at home starting next week. The first Test match will take place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Thursday, February 9. India has already started its preparation for the series opener. The upcoming four matches hold a lot of importance for Team India, as their chances of making it to the final of the ICC World Test Championship depend on the outcome of this series. India needs to win at least three matches to be absolutely sure of playing its second straight WTC final. Even though playing in favourable home conditions is likely to assist India in its bid to achieve the objective against the world’s No. 1 Test team, there are a couple of selection headaches that India needs to sort out before taking the field against the Baggy Greens in Nagpur on Thursday morning.
Here’s a look at three major questions that Team India needs to answer before the start of the series opener:
Who’ll open with Rohit Sharma?
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is set to play his first Test since March 2022, but it will be interesting to see who, between Shubman Gill and KL Rahul, will open the innings with him. Gill has been in red-hot form these days and has scored runs for fun as an opener, whereas, despite his odd-even form off late, Rahul has performed well as an opening batter.
If Shreyas Iyer is out, who’ll bat at No. 5?
Shreyas Iyer, the star middle-order batter, is reportedly ruled out of the first Test against Australia due to fitness concerns. In his place, India will now have to field a new batter, and it will be interesting to see who among Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Suryakumar Yadav will get a chance in the crucial middle-order position.
Who’ll keep wickets in the absence of Rishabh Pant?
Star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant met with an unfortunate road accident on December 30, 2022, in which he suffered multiple injuries because of which he is out of action for a considerable period of time. He will miss the entire Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and in his place, India have included two wicketkeeper-batters: Ishan Kishan and KS Bharat. Both of them haven’t played a Test match for India till date, and it will be interesting to see who will get a chance to make his Test debut in the series opener.
Spin combination
India have selected as many as four spinners in the 17-member squad for the first two Tests: Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel. All four of them are capable of making life difficult for Aussie batters, so it will be interesting to see who all gets the nod in the playing XI and who warms the bench.
