Border-Gavaskar Trophy-winning coach Ravi Shastri names India's strongest XI vs Australia

India and Australia are all set to lock horns against each other in a four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Test series) starting February 9. Ahead of the highly-anticipated encounter, former India head coach Ravi Shastri shared his predicted playing XI for the Rohit Sharma-led side. Shastri picked Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner ahead of Axar Patel, who was phenomenal with the ball during the home Test series against England in 2021.  

Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Ravi Shastri's India XI

1. Rohit Sharma (c)
2. Shubman Gill/KL Rahul
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli
5. Suryakumar Yadav
6. KS Bharat/Ishan Kishan (wk)
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. R Ashwin
9. Kuldeep Yadav
10. Mohammed Shami
11. Mohammed Siraj

Shastri predicts the scoreline for BGT 2023

Meanwhile, Shastri has also predicted the scoreline for the upcoming four-match contest, saying that India should look to win the series 4-0. Shastri said with India winning the previous three Test meetings against the Aussies, their mindset should not just be to win the series but to whitewash the visitors currently placed at the top of the World Test Championship rankings. 

"India should look to win 4-0, we’re playing at home. I’m brutal. I’ve been on two tours of Australia, I know what’s happened. My mindset would be, ‘How can I beat Australia 4-0 if I’m the coach’, which means day one, I want a ball to pitch on leg stump and hit off stump. I want it to rip. If someone asks me what kind of pitch? Expect that. If you lose the toss, expect the ball to turn in the first session of play. That’s what I want, and take it from there," Shastri said. 

Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Full squads

India's squad (first two Tests): Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia's squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.

FIXTURES

1st Test, Nagpur: February 9-13 - 9:30 pm IST
2nd Test, Delhi: February 17-21 - 9:30 pm IST
3rd Test, Dharamsala: March 1-5 - 9:30 pm IST
4th Test, Ahmedabad: March 9-13 - 9:30 pm IST

Image: ICC