Published 19:04 IST, June 4th 2023
WTC Final: Ex-India cricketer makes innovative choice for preferred India Playing XI
Former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar has picked up his playing XI for the WTC Final against Australia and has made some really surprising choices in his team.
The Indian cricket team under the leadership of Rohit Sharma is all set to face Australia in the final of the World Test Championship. The biggest event of Test cricket is all set to be played at the Kennington Oval ground in London and will start on June 7, 2023.
The Indian team will hope to end their ten-year-old drought of ICC trophies and will look forward to lifting the ICC World Test Championship 2023 mace. While every cricket expert is picking their playing XI, former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar also picked up his choice of playing squad for Team India for the WTC Final 2023.
Team India playing XI for WTC Final 2023 as per Sunil Gavaskar
"I will talk about the batting and that will be Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill as one-two. No. 3 is Cheteshwar Pujara, No. 4 is Virat Kohli, No. 5 is Ajinkya Rahane. No. 6 is where there is just a little bit of a concern", Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Sunil Gavaskar believed that the Indian team will have KS Bharat in place of Ishan Kishan and also explained the reason. "I would imagine No. 6 would be either Srikar Bharat or Ishan Kishan. They are talking about Bharat because he has played all these matches so far. So will probably stick with Bharat at six", Gavaskar said.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur
The Indian cricket team has been missing the services of Rishabh Pant who will be missing the WTC 2023 Final due to injury and has been searching for a desirable candidate in his place. Ishan Kishan has been named as his replacement but is yet to play a Test. KS Bharat made his debut against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 and might be their first-choice wicketkeeper.
The former opening batsman also picked in Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin as his two spinners whereas Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, and Shardul Thakur were the three pacers in his team.
"No. 7 will be Ravindra Jadeja. If it's a bright day and a bright prediction, then I think you are looking at Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin at No. 7 and No. 8. No. 9, 10, and 11 will be Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and maybe Shardul Thakur", Sunil Gavaskar said.
Updated 19:04 IST, June 4th 2023