IND vs AUS: Rohit Sharma leaves Australia worried with bold comment on Ahmedabad Test

India captain Rohit Sharma has said that if his team wins the third Test match against Australia in Indore, they will look to replicate the English conditions in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rohit said that a pace-friendly track will be laid out in Ahmedabad in order to prepare for the final of the World Test Championship, which is scheduled to be held in England in June. India will qualify for the WTC final if they manage to defeat Australia in the third Test match in Indore. 

Rohit has also said that they will play with a different team combination in Ahmedabad if they book a berth in the WTC final after the third Test. All-rounder Shardul Thakur, who played the Test matches in England on India's last tour, will likely be included in the fourth match in place of a spinner. Rohit, however, stated that they don't want to think about the World Test Championship final too much and just want to focus on the upcoming match at the moment. 

"There is definitely a possibility of that. We have already spoken about it. We need to get the guys ready for it. The important one is Shardul Thakur because he comes into the planning for us. We don't know how ready he is since he has just gotten married. We don't know how many overs he has bowled. But that thought process is definitely there. If we do what we do here and get the result we want, we might think of doing something different in Ahmedabad for sure," Rohit said.

"It'll be a different ball game, for both teams actually. Actually, I don't want to talk about the World Test Championship. We're not there yet. We have to win this game and then talk about it. That'll be the right thing to do," he added.

India vs Australia

The third Test match is scheduled to take place in Indore starting March 1. Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the third Test and Steve Smith will captain Australia in his absence. Cummins has flown back to Australia due to a family emergency. His mother is extremely unwell and is currently under medical supervision. 

India’s Test squad for the third & fourth Test against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), K L Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

Australia squad for the third Test: Steve Smith (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matt Kuhnemann.

Image: BCCI