Indian Playing 11: India have refrained themselves from making surprising changes to their Playing XI for the all-important final.
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India have announced their Playing XI for the final match of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship. Having announced a 15-member squad earlier this week, India have further shortlisted their combination on the eve of the match.
All the three changes from the team which played the fourth Test against England in Ahmedabad earlier this year have come in the bowling department as Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah have returned to the XI in place of Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Mohammed Siraj.
The development means that this will be the first time when Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin will be representing India in an overseas Test match. The conundrum regarding playing a specialist batsman or a second spin-bowling all-rounder has seen the latter registering a clear victory.
Indian Playing 11 vs New Zealand
In addition to batsman Hanuma Vihari, wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha and fast bowler Umesh Yadav, another pacer in Siraj has missed out on making it to the Playing XI from the shortlisted 15.
In the build-up to the match, there had been talks of Siraj having it in him to pin down Ishant Sharma for the third pacer’s spot. India, who have backed Sharma’s experience, appears to have made the right move for the 32-year old player has picked 43 wickets in 12 Tests in England at an average and strike rate of 33.90 and 61.3.
Playing three specialist fast bowlers and a couple of potent spinners who can contribute equally well with the bat, India have the highest quality of balance in their Playing XI before the Southampton Test.
It is hard on Siraj but Ishant’s incredible numbers over the last few years and, I suspect, confidence in his current fitness level, have tilted it in his favour. This is as complete a bowling attack as you can get
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 17, 2021
Indian Playing 11 for WTC Final 2021 – 1) Rohit Sharma 2) Shubman Gill 3) Cheteshwar Pujara 4) Virat Kohli (c) 5) Ajinkya Rahane (vc) 6) Rishabh Pant (wk) 7) Ravindra Jadeja 8) Ravichandran Ashwin 9) Ishant Sharma 10) Mohammed Shami 11) Jasprit Bumrah
