“India will go with two spinners, two fast bowlers and an all-rounder”- Ravi Shastri reveals his India XI for WTC final against Australia

Two-weeks are left to kick-off the World Test Championship (WTC) final 2021-2023 that will be played between India and Australia from June 7-11 at The Oval in London.

Ahead of the mega event, former Indian cricketer and head coach Ravi Shastri revealed his India XI considering England’s weather conditions in mind. Shastri believes that there will be a good chance for team India to win the WTC final if they play with two spinners, two pacers and an allrounder in England’s conditions.

“If the track is hard and dry, you would want two spinners to play for sure. I think it goes a lot with the weather in England. I believe it’s sunny now at the moment, but you know, English weather, how it can change in the month of June. So, there’s a very good chance India will go with two spinners, two fast bowlers and an all-rounder. That will be the combination,” Shastri said on ‘The ICC Review’.

Shastri also said that India would go with five batsmen and a wicket-keeper.

“And then there’ll be five batsmen and the wicket-keeper, so six batsmen. So, if all conditions stay normal at The Oval, then this would be my combination, but you’ve got to have the quality to be able to put those guys out in the park,” the 1983 World Cup winner added.

After Kl Rahul’s exclusion from the WTC final squad due to injury, it is likely that team management will go with Shubham Gill and Rohit Sharma as openers. In addition to that, Shastri picked Ajinkya Rahane in the middle order who made his comeback to the team after an impressive batting in the ongoing IPL 2023 while playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

“The way he’s timed the ball, the way he’s looking at T20 from a different perspective. It just goes to show (what happens) when you go through the grind, you go back to domestic cricket. He’s earned his place in that World Test Championship side. Now you’ll have to see closer to the event what the final XI will be,” he added.

Here’s the playing XI of Ravi Shastri:

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat (WK), Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj