The Indian cricket team named their playing XI for the much-awaited boxing-day Test match against Australia, which will kickstart on December 26. After suffering a humiliating defeat in the first test match, team India has made four major changes in the squad.
While Prithvi Shaw has been dropped from the playing squad, on the other hand, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj will be making their Test debuts. Gill has come in place of Prithvi Shaw, who failed to make full use of the opportunity of the chances given to him. Also, Mohammed Siraj has come in place of Mohammed Shami, who got injured during the first test match.
Apart from them, Rishabh Pant replaced Wriddhiman Saha as the wicket-keeper as Ajinkya Rahane will be seen leading the team as a skipper in the absence of Virat Kohli, who has left for India to be there for his wife Anushka Sharma during the birth of his child.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has also been included in the playing XI as team India will go in with five bowlers for the Boxing Day Test.
India XI: Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
Meanwhile, social media was flooded with reactions on the playing squad for the second Test match. From cricketers and cricket experts to fans, people took to their Twitter to express their thoughts on the playing XI of the Indian cricket team.
Here, check out the reactions of Twitterati on this:
The thought while picking this particular batting combination must be:
Shubman+Pant+Jadeja > Kohli+Shaw+Saha.
And you get wickets and gun fielding from Jadeja. #AusvInd— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) December 25, 2020
India make 4 changes to the Melbourne Test XI – Gill for Shaw, Pant for Saha, Jadeja for Virat and Siraj for Shami #IndvsAus
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) December 25, 2020
The changes in the playing XI are as expected, Shubman in place Prithvi, pant in for Saha, Siraj in for Shami, Jadeja in place of Kohli.
I would have preferred K.L Rahul in place of Vihari for the very reason he is more a fluent player & experienced..@klrahul11 pic.twitter.com/ZoCLOPh6wa
— [email protected] (@learnzonepluss) December 25, 2020
Thread. India’s team for the 2nd test is an admission that they got many things wrong in the first test. Especially with the keeper & opener. They must think Shaw is short on confidence because dropping a player after 2 innings means you aren’t giving him time to learn (cont)
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) December 25, 2020
https://twitter.com/AskFreakout/status/1342364563610640386?s=20
New
Opportunities
Kindle
Life #BoxingDayTest #WeBelieve https://t.co/CzFV3XWLdh— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) December 25, 2020
Two guys making their debut tomorrow.I wish them all the luck.May they have great and fulfilling career for team India. @RealShubmanGill #siraj Would have liked to see @klrahul11 in the paying11 too. #AusAvIND
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) December 25, 2020
Shubman Gill will make his Test debut tomorrow on the back of an average of 68.78 in first-class cricket. It is the highest f-c average to earn Test cap for India since Vinod Kambli (88.37) made his debut in 1993. #AusvInd
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) December 25, 2020
