Days after revealing his India-Australia XI, and selecting the players who will feature in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final, Ravi Shastri has now provided his predictions for the India XI. Notably, the highly anticipated summit clash between the two sides is scheduled to commence on June 7 at the Oval in London.
Shastri reckoned that the prevailing conditions would influence India’s XI for the mega event in the days leading up to the match. The former India coach observed that two crucial factors would shape India’s XI: the fitness of the fast bowlers and the weather conditions in London during the preparation period.
It is worth mentioning that India’s squad comprises three spin options, including the seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, the top-ranked all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, and the highly skilled left-arm spinner Axar Patel. Their presence adds depth and variety to India’s spin bowling resources, and Shastri opined that if the pitch at The Oval appears conducive to spin bowling, India can consider Ashwin as the sole specialist spinner and utilize Jadeja as a No.6 batter.
“If the track is hard and dry, you would want two spinners to play for sure. I think it goes a lot with the weather in England. I believe it’s sunny now at the moment, but you know, English weather, how it can change in the month of June. So there’s a very good chance India will go with two spinners, two fast bowlers and an all-rounder. That will be the combination. And then there’ll be five batsmen and the wicket-keeper, so six batsmen. So if all conditions stay normal at The Oval, then this would be my combination, but you’ve got to have the quality to be able to put those guys out in the park,” said Shastri in a chat with Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review Show.
The former India all-rounder named the fast-bowling duo of Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj as the two frontline pacers before adding Shardul Thakur in the mix to strengthen the pace battery. Shastri picked Shubman Gill as the opening partner for Rohit Sharma in place of KL Rahul, who was ruled out of the WTC final due to an injury. Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli will walk out at No.3 and No.4, respectively, and for the subsequent batting number, Shastri went with Ajinkya Rahane stating the Mumbaikar has earned his place for the big event.
“The way he’s timed the ball, the way he’s looking at T20 from a different perspective. He’s not looking at the number of runs, he’s looking at the number of balls he’s playing as against that. It just goes to show (what happens) when you go through the grind, you go back to domestic cricket. He’s earned his place in that World Test Championship side. Now you’ll have to see closer to the event what the final XI will be,” added Shastri.
Ravi Shastri’s predicted India XI:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat (wk), Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
