IND VS AUS 3rd Test, Playing 11: KL Rahul DROPPED for Shubman Gill; Starc, Green RETURNS after injury

IND VS AUS: With a single win away from sealing the World Test Championship berth, Rohit Sharma and Co take on Australia in the third Test of the Border Gavaskar Series at Indore.

IND VS AUS 3rd Test Playing 11:

India’s Playing 11: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj

India have dropped out-of-form and under fire, KL Rahul has been dropped for Shubman Gill. The other big change is Mohammad Shami. He has been rested for Umesh Yadav. 

However, BCCI is yet to declare Rohit Sharma’s deputy. Both Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid face a massive headache regarding the selection of KL Rahul in the starting XI.

Now stripped off his vice-captaincy, Rahul’s place in the team hangs on thin ice. Failing to score big runs despite getting chances to perform has brought criticism on Rahul from the cricket pundits.

Australia’s Playing XI:

Steven Smith (c), Mitch Starc, Matt Kuhnemann, Nathan Lyon, Usman Khwaja, Travis Head, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Peter Handscomb

Aussie Speedster Mitchell Starc and top all-rounder Cameron Green come in the place of David Warner and Pat Cummins. Full-time captain Cummins had earlier returned to Australia due to his mother’s ill condition. Thus, Steve Smith was given leadership roles despite his ban from Australian captaincy.

Notably, Australia needs to avoid 4-0 whitewash to book their place at the ICC World Test Championship final in London and there’s every chance they could face India again in that one-off Test match with the lure of claiming the coveted mace.

It will be a great contest to watch, with the odd ones keeping low and the lightening-fast out field of Indore.

Thank you for reading.