Skip to main content

India's probable XI for the fourth Test against Australia at Brisbane: India without the availability of Bumrah, Jadeja looking to win and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy

 


With all to play for, team India is looking to put together a decent line up to face the mighty Aussies for the series decider on a ground where the host did not loose a Test match in 32 years. Currently, the Border-Gavaskar series is locked at 1-1. We have seen some of the dramatic scenes this series starting with India getting blown away for 36 runs in the first Test. They bounced back to win the second Test on the back of their stand in Captain Rahane’s wonderful century. Then the dramatic final day of the third Test where India batted for 131 overs to save the Test match with some really injured players. We have also seen 5 Test debutants this series, Cameron Green, Will Pukovski from Australia, Mohemmad Siraj, Shubman Gill and Navdeep Saini from India all making a substantial contribution in the matches they played.

During the course of the series, India suffered some huge blows with most of the senior players in the squad are injured and unavailable. Started with Captain Virat Kohli leaving the team for some personal commitments.

Ace paceman, Mohammed Shami broke his wrist while defending a bouncer from Pat Cummins in the first Test.

Umesh Yadav went out during the second Test with a calf injury.

Wicket Keeper batsman, KL Rahul sustained a wrist injury while batting in the nets.

Rishab Pant got hit by a ball on his elbow but luckily, it was not a fracture. He was unable to keep wickets but came out to bat on the fifth day taking pain killers, playing a good hand of 97 runs and contributing towards a historic draw. He will probably be able to play the final Test.

All-Rounder, Ravindra Jadeja broke his left thumb while defending a short pitch ball from Mitchel Starc. According to the medical staffs, he will be out for at least six weeks.

Middle order batsman, Hanuma Vihari sustained a ham string injury while playing one of his most important innings for India. He along with Ashwin played out 42 overs stitching a 63 run unbeaten partnership to save the Test and keeping the series alive at 1-1. The injury neutralized him from taking any sort of singles or doubles during the innings. But the grit shown by him to stay at the crease and bat out the day was commendable. He will also be missing the fourth Test.

Ravichandran Ashwin suffered a back spasm during the match. The off spinner has bowled a lot of overs during the first three Tests. Currently he is not able to move around or sleep properly but the medical team is hopeful to get him back on the part for the final Test.

Mayank Agarwal also picked up an injury in his hand while batting at the nets, a ball hit his gloves and had to go for a scan. Hopefully, he will be available for the final Test. The biggest blow came, when

Jaspreet Bumrah got ruled out of the fourth Test with a groin injury leaving a very inexperienced seam bowling options available for selection.



Team India will be looking forward to the experience of Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to anchor them to a huge total as they will be going in with a very inexperienced bowling line up. The available seam bowling options include Mohammed Siraj who made his debut during the second Test, this series and only has played two Test matches. Navdeep Saini, who made his debut in the last match. Though both of them fared well with the given opportunity but will they be able to lead the attack with the series at stake? The other two options are T Natarajan who is yet to make a Test debut and Shardul Thakur, who was called in as Shami’s replacement has only one Test experience under his belt. If Ashwin is not available, then they will have to look for Kuldeep Yadav as a replacement who is a good enough replacement with the ball but not so with the bat in hand. Pant may not be able to keep wickets, but he will be able to play as a batsman. In that case, Wriddhima Saha has to do the keeping duties for the match. The changed opening partnership has been able to deliver solid starts in both innings of the third Test. India will not be looking at changing the Gill-Sharma combination. Pujara, Rahane, Pant makes up the 3,4,5 slots, India will be hoping to see Mayank taking the number 6 spot if he recovers from his injury. Or else, India will have to go in with Prithvi Shaw. Saha will be batting at the number 7 spot followed by the bowler with the spin option being Ashwin if he is fit or Kuldeep Yadav. Siraj and Saini likely to keep their place and Shardul Thakur may come in as Bumrah’s replacement. Shardul also brings in a little bit of batting ability along with his seam bowling option which can act as a little bit of cousin looking at the vulnerable lower middle order. The playing XI most likely be looking like this:

1.       Shubman Gill

2.       Rohit Sharma

3.       Cheteshwar Pujara

4.       Ajinkya Rahane (C)

5.       Rishab Pant

6.       Mayank Agarwal

7.       Wriddhiman Saha

8.       R Ashwin / Kuldeep Yadav

9.       Shardul Thakur

10.   Navdeep Saini

11.   Mohammed Siraj


By Sayandeep Dutta

Follow My Blogs at: https://stumpmiccricket.blogspot.com/    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KKR - Team Overview, IPL 2025 Season

                           KKR – Team Overview, IPL 2025 Season The three times IPL winners and the current defending champions are again one of the teams to watch out for in the upcoming Tata IPL, season 18. As the team management successfully retained most of their core, they still had to let go two of their heavy weights, Sreyas Iyer and Mitchelle Starc during the mega auction. But, overall the team looks well balanced and destructive in their own way.   With the experience of Ajinkya Rahane leading the side with the assistance of veteran Chandrakant Pandit as a head coach, the team already has a solid XI and the bench strength also looks solid too. Looks to have covered all bases except the impact of Mitchelle Starc.   Lets have a look at how the playing XI along with the impact player is looking like, Yes, the combination may vary depe...
Post a Comment
Read more

AUSTRALIAN BIG GUNS MAXWELL, FINCH, SMITH RELEASED AHEAD OF THE IPL AUCTION 2021. DANIEL SAMS AND ROBIN UTHAPPA TRADED. FULL LIST OF RETAINED, RELEASED AND TRADED PLAYERS BEFORE IPL AUCTION 2021.

Three Australian Superstars feathers the IPL release list IPL fever is back with the player auctions for the fourteenth season. All eight teams are geared up to shake up their squad during the auction scheduled to be held on 11 th February, 2021. Unsure about how the Pandemic will pan out, teams will be looking forward to get a stable team balance who can be suitable for both Indian and foreign conditions. Over the years we have seen teams going for players who can suit their home playing conditions as they were scheduled to play 7 home matches out of 14 matches. But, the scenario changed in the last edition of the money rich league as the tournament had to be forcefully pushed to UAE due to the COVID 19 pandemic and none of the teams had the advantage of home ground. With a very little turnaround time, all franchise owners and management has been busy in shaping up their squads by releasing some and retaining most of the squad for almost most of the teams. Lets have a look at the t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sixes galore in Nicolas Pooran’s whirlwind innings at the Abu Dhabi T10 League. Northern Warriors cruised to a 30 runs victory against Bengal Tigers

  The West Indies and Northern Warriors Wicket Keeper batsman, Nicolas Pooran smashed the ball all over the park in his 26 balls 89 runs innings. In the 11 th match of the Abu Dhabi T10 League, the Northern Warriors won by 30 runs against a fighting Bengal Tigers team. Batting first, the Warriors posted a mammoth 162/4 in their allotted 10 overs. Walked into the crease at the score of 22/1 in 1.5 overs, Pooran went on to his six hitting streak after quietly facing the first 3 balls scoring a single run. In his 26 balls innings, he smashed 12 towering sixes to go with 3 fours. The best part was that the innings was full of pure cricket shots and no slogging. He along with his West Indies teammate, Lendl Simmons (41)   put on a 122-runs stand in very quick time, taking their team to a massive 162 runs. The Bengal Tigers struggled at the start with Johnson Charles and Afif Hossain falling cheaply. But, the partnership between the Spiceman, Andre Fletcher (53) and Chirag Suri (...
Post a Comment
Read more