Team India has taken a 2-0 lead in the ongoing four-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The trio of Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Axar Patel have not just delivered with the ball, but they have also scored big so far in the series. The Rohit Sharma-led side showed faith in KL Rahul over Shubman Gill but the opening batter disappointed the fans and the management as he could only score 38 runs in two matches. As the third Test starts on Wednesday, the management has to make the tough decision of choosing between out-of-form K L Rahul and Shubman Gill.
Here’s our predicted India playing XI for the 3rd Test:
Rohit Sharma:Rohit played a captain’s knock and smashed 120 off 212 balls in the first Test. The skipper went on to score 32 and 31 runs in the second Test. He will definitely look to continue with his brilliant form in the next game.
Shubman Gill: The inclusion of KL Rahul over him in the first two Tests, left the fans fuming as the vice-captain failed to play a big innings. There are chances that the team management might go with Gill in place of Rahul as the young batter has shown great results in the Test series against Bangladesh, where he smashed a ton.
Cheteshwar Pujara: The ever-reliable Cheteshwar Pujara, who played his 100th Test in the last match, fell for 0 in the first innings. However, he played an unbeaten knock of 31 runs and took Team India across the line in the last innings. He will be eyeing a big score in the third Test.
Virat Kohli: The star India batter smashed 44 and 20 runs in the second Test. Kohli will look to play a bigger innings in the upcoming match.
Shreyas Iyer: Coming back from the injury and replacing Suryakumar Yadav, the right-handed batter failed to leave a mark in the match. He could only manage low scores like 4 and 12 in both the innings.
KS Bharat: The 29-year-old cricketer did a good job as a wicketkeeper and took three catches behind the stumps. Apart from this, he played a quick knock of 23* runs off 22 balls, laced with three fours and one six.
Axar Patel: The 29-year-old all-rounder once again showed his batting skills and smashed 74 off 115 balls. However, he went wicketless with the ball in his entire spell. He will definitely have a place in the Playing XI for the third Test.
Ravindra Jadeja: After his heroics in the first Test, the all-rounder impressed everyone with his amazing spin in the second match as well. Jadeja scalped three wickets in the first innings and then went on to achieve a seven-wicket haul in the second innings. Apart from this, he also scored 26 runs off 74 balls.
Ravichandran Ashwin: The veteran all-rounder gave full support to Jadeja and contributed by taking a total of six wickets during the second Test.
Mohammad Shami: The veteran pacer impressed everyone with his skills as he took four wickets in the first innings. However, he went wicketless in the second innings but his dominance in the pace department cannot be overlooked.
Mohammed Siraj:Siraj bowled 10 overs in the first innings and conceded only 30 runs. However, he failed to take any wicket and was not given any over in the next innings as spinners dominated the game.
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