INTERNATIONAL CRICKET

India to make a few changes ahead of 4th Test vs Australia

Indian National Team

The Indian team got a bad shock in the 3rd Test against Australia at Indore where they lost by 9 wickets.

After playing so well in the opening two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, this loss has opened the series completely.

The result of this failure can be given to the batsmen who have not been able to play well.

The likes of KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli haven’t been able to contribute much with the bat so far.

Thus, in the 4th and final Test, all eyes will be on these players and how the pitch turns out.

Moreover, India’s lower-middle and lower order helped them to win the games at Nagpur and Delhi.

But, when they also failed, India lost the 3rd Test to Australia.

Head coach, Rahul Dravid has further defended, keeper-batter, KS Bharat and stated that the latter hasn’t been very lucky.

Dravid also says that these pitches are spin-friendly and ‘result-oriented’ ones so people should not expect any tons or double tons from the Indian players.

Says Dravid on Bharat,

…even though it’s not a big contribution, he got 17 in the first innings. Got a nice contribution in Delhi where he played positively, and you need a little bit of luck in these conditions and he hasn’t probably had that, and he is shaping really nicely for us. So we need to put batting performance in perspective.

Kishan might get a chance; Shami back in the mix of things for India

On the other hand, India may tinker with their batting order by handing Ishan Kishan his debut cap.

However, Kishan doesn’t have much talent in playing spinners well in Test cricket and has made centuries in ODIs only.

Therefore, doubts linger as to whether will Kishan be given a chance or if will he warm the bench.

Meanwhile, Shami’s return to the playing XI is confirmed as he will replace Mohammed Siraj.

Siraj, who will lead the pace attack in the 3 ODIs for India has been rested to get a break from Test cricket after having played three continuously.

Also, India will most likely keep two pacers-three spinners combination for the 4th Test as well because of Dravid’s stress on pacers getting early wickets with the new ball.

India’s probable playing XI for the 4th Test vs Australia

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav

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