No Gill or Kuldeep: Dinesh Karthik picks his Playing XI for India for 1st Test vs Australia in Nagpur
The first test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy is all set to commence on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Everything is done, and both teams and their players are ready to start a high voltage contest.
Both teams have produced many incredible contests, which explains why expectations are very high. Rohit Sharma and co. will lock horns with Pat Cummins-led Australia. Already, many former cricketers have predicted that Australia is better prepared for the upcoming series, but the history suggests that India has always dominated the Aussies at home.
Australia has conquered all across the world, but in India, they won the last test series way back in 2003. That's why the stakes of this series are pretty high. The team combination is the main talking point ahead of the first test.
The biggest question is whether India will prefer three spinners and two pacers, or two spinners or three pacers in combination. Then, they will also have to look at the opening combination and who will bat in the middle. However, veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik revealed his playing XI for India through a tweet on Wednesday.
He has picked Rohit and KL Rahul as the openers and dropped in-form Shubman Gill from the team, which is a big call. And according to his playing lineup, two players will make their debuts. He has picked Suryakumar Yadav and then KS Bharat as wicketkeeper instead of Ishan Kishan.
DK has picked a bowling combination of three spinners and two pacers. Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami are his first-choice pacers in the team, and Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are the two frontline spinners.
My 11 for first test 😊
— DK (@DineshKarthik) February 8, 2023
Kl
Rohit
Pujara
Virat
SKY
Jadeja
K S Bharat
Ashwin
Axar
Shami
Siraj #BGT2023 #1stTest#IndiaVsAustralia
However, as a third spinner, he has picked Axar Patel over Kuldeep Yadav, which is also a surprise pick because Kuldeep has been in great form recently and has more variety than Axar. However, Axar brings more batting depth to the team.
Karthik's Indian playing XI for 1st Test: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel, Md Siraj, Md Shami.