India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has named his Indian XI for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final against Australia which will be played at the Oval from June 7-11, 2023.
Team India, who lost to New Zealand in the final of the inaugural WTC cycle, will hope to clinch their maiden title this time. This time they will be without some of their first-choice important players. Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah have been ruled out due to their respective rehab and recovery after their surgeries, while KL Rahul also underwent surgery to rectify a hip flexor issue and miss the WTC 2023 final.
During an interaction on the Star Sports show ‘Follow the Blues’, Gavaskar was asked to pick his Indian XI for the WTC final, to which he responded:
“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.
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.”
India also has the option of choosing Ishan Kishan, if they want to break the monotony of right-handed batters at the top and give themselves an explosive option like Pant.
You Are Looking At Ravindra Jadeja And Ravi Ashwin Playing If It’s A Bright Day: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar expects India to field both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin if the conditions are not too overcast.
He said: “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.”
To increase the depth of their batting, the Indian team management may decide to play Shardul. However, they may use Umesh as a third expert seamer since Jadeja and Ashwin are also capable of using the willow successfully.
Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian XI for the WTC final: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur