My India XI for the Boxing Day Test

After the aberration that was day three of the first Test at Adelaide Oval, what turned out to be a shambolic performance by team India for the ages could not have been predicted.

It’s one of those games the Indian players involved would like to wipe away as if it never happened. But take nothing away from Australia, it was an incredible display of fast bowling, with Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins giving Terminator-esque performances – relentless and machine-like accuracy, giving nothing away, until they terminate the target.

And as an Indian fan, the best one can do is to look ahead, to quickly shift the focus towards the next assignment because looking back at this Test would be like when you’re balding and your bald head is zoomed in on. One is embarrassed and looks for a hole in the ground to crawl into.

In my previous article, I expressed my selection choices for the Adelaide Oval clash. I picked K. L. Rahul as my opener and Shubman Gill and Rahul from the second Test onwards. I hadn’t even considered Prithvi Shaw as a contender and to my and many Indian fans’ dismay, found Prithvi to be the first choice opener! The result once he was picked, however, was not that surprising.

Prithvi Shaw. (Photo by William West / AFP / Getty Images)

The whole selection saga, right from the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri partnership, is the one which raises eyebrows quite often. I think there was a stretch of 28-29 Tests, if I am not wrong, when the playing XI for the Test team was not kept the same for even two consecutive Tests. This included even the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane being dropped, among others. And of course, many changes were forced injury-related changes. But even considering this, there was very little consistency and stability in team selections, favourable results notwithstanding.

So from that logic, it will be hard for Prithvi to retain his place, though there is the bigger question mark of why he was even picked in the squad, let alone opening in the first Test. There is also another school of thought which believes in giving at least two Tests to give him a fair chance. In this case, I don’t buy that theory.

My XI for the second Test

1. Mayank Agarwal
2. K. L. Rahul
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Ajinkya Rahane
5. Shubman Gill
6. Rishabh Pant
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Jasprit Bumrah
10. Umesh Yadav
11. Mohammed Siraj

I know this would be too many changes for some fans’ liking and some may not agree with my choices, but given India’s situation in the series and the latest developments, I think they would be better served with this team for the Boxing Day Test.

Mohammed Shami’s participation not only for Boxing Day but also for the rest of the series looks dicey, though it is still too early to comment. Navdeep Saini went for plenty both in the ODIs and the warm-up game, so it just leaves Siraj as the default quickie. And with Umesh and Siraj as your primary bowlers, it leaves Bumrah to do the heavy lifting.

Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)

With Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne not among too many runs in the first Test, I expect them to come up with bigger scores in the MCG Test, where the pitch is also expected to be on the slower side. And that could mean potentially a lot of bowling, so a fifth bowling option would be handy to rotate, so that Bumrah and Ashwin do not burn out early in the series.

And not only does it have to do with bowling long spells, but in the absence of Shami, a four-bowler attack looks weak, even on paper. And Jadeja being a much-improved batsman over the last two years would be valuable, besides being India’s best fielder. Nothing against Hanuma Vihari, but in my book, he would be just unfortunate to miss out for the better balance of the team.

To play Gill as an opener, one must also give thought to where they intend to play him in the future. He should be tried in the middle order, so that in the event one of Pujara/Virat/Rahane are injured or missing a Test or two he could easily replace them. Rahul, on the other hand, has opened for the major chunk of his career and should get back to his previous role and should be played as reserve opener once Rohit Sharma is back.

Another couple of poor outings would mean even Mayank would be on the radar. I don’t like the fact that the selectors went ahead with potentially five openers in the squad. That wasn’t required and there is no pecking order of who should be selected. They should have gone with only one reserve opener in the event one of the regular openers gets injured or is horribly out of form. And if they doubt that both the openers could be out of sorts, then they shouldn’t be selected in the first place.

Pant would also make a comeback in my XI. I had him in the previous Test, too. Who knows, his counter attacking shots could may have saved India from some of the blushes of the second innings. Pant and Jadeja would also bring some much required left-handedness to the side.

India must be hurting from the embarrassing loss and they must channel this hurt into performances in the second Test. For starters, they need to select a better team with the resources available, and only then can they have a shot at redeeming themselves.

Otherwise it could turn out to be a long tour for them.