Dinesh Karthik has made some big calls while selecting his predicted eleven for India in the first Test against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Nagpur. Karthik chose KS Bharat to keep wickets ahead of Ishan Kishan.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Feb 8, 2023 11:46 IST
Karthik has made some bold calls with his predicted lineup for India (Courtesy: PTI and AP)
By India Today Web Desk: Dinesh Karthik has made some interesting calls while selecting his Indian team lineup for the first Test against Australia on Thursday in Nagpur in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India and Australia are set to lock horns in an important series that will have major World Test Championship implications and the lineup for both teams has been a hot topic of discussion in recent days.
Australia will be without the services of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cameron Green for the first Test in Nagpur. As for India, the big conundrum has been the middle order, with it being a toss up between Shubman Gill and potential Test debutant Suryakumar Yadav.
Even the bowling combination has been widely scrutinized by many with a few going for three spinners and a pacer while others going for two in each department.
Karthik has now revealed his picks for the first Test on Twitter and did make some interesting calls. The veteran wicketkeeper went for KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma to open the batting for the hosts, with Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli at No.3 and No.4 respectively.
Karthik decided to pick Yadav over Gill for the No.5 spot and picked three spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin and decided to exclude Kuldeep Yadav. Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj were the pacers the veteran wicketkeeper decided to go with.
In his own department, Karthik went for KS Bharat instead of Ishan Kishan.
“My 11 for first test: Kl Rohit Pujara Virat SKY Jadeja K S Bharat Ashwin Axar Shami Siraj,” tweeted Dinesh Karthik.
Ahead of the series, Karthik also said that there would be a lot of pressure on Nathan Lyon and claimed that the off-spinner cannot afford to have a bad session throughout the series if Australia needs to win.
“They have a world class off-spinner in Lyon. You also must understand that he will be under a lot of pressure knowing that he will be the key bowler for Australia to steer the ship in which direction it needs to go. One bad session from his part could mean the Test match is moving in a direction against Australia and that’s a lot of pressure to handle,” said Karthik.
