NEWS
Follow UsIndia have confirmed a debut for Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first Test against West India in Roseau, as the young left-handed opener from Mumbai will open with Rohit Sharma. Meanwhile, the Indian skipper has confirmed that Shubman Gill will bat at the No.3 position, which Cheteshwar Pujara had earlier occupied.
Jaiswal has been one of the most impressive batters in domestic cricket over the last couple of years, which yielded him a spot in India's World Test Championship 2023 Final against Australia last month. He was later called up to the Test squad for the West Indies series and was earlier deemed to be batting at the No.3, but as it turns out, he will walk out to bat with Rohit Sharma as an opener.
In the two matches he’s batted at No.3, the southpaw scored 377 runs, averaging a high 125.67, but the team management has now decided to open with him.
"Gill will play at number 3 because Gill himself wants to play at number 3. He discussed with Rahul (Dravid) that I have played all my cricket at 3 and 4. I think I can do better for my team if I bat at number 3. And it is good for us too because it becomes an opening combination of left and right," Rohit said ahead of the first Test on Wednesday.
"So I think we will try to do this and hopefully this will go on for a long time. Because we have been looking for a left-hander for many years. So now that we have got that left-hander, let's hope he performs well for the team. And he can really make that spot his own.”
While youngsters like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Jaiswal were rewarded with call-ups to the side, Rohit said it was unfortunate that a few others had to miss out.
"All these guys were in the radar and the selectors were watching them closely, I'm glad they could be rewarded," the India captain said of the youngsters picked for the series.
"There are also a couple of guys who missed out but unfortunately you can get only 15-16 players but everyone's time will come. Looking forward, Indian cricket desperately needed a lefthander and we found a very good player in Jaiswal. He looks very promising and so is Ruturaj.
"Gill has obviously been playing good cricket for a year now and hope he continues his good form. Ruturaj has good potential in red-ball cricket, he has shown us in T20 cricket what he can do. It's time for him to show...and pretty sure he is also looking forward to getting more and more runs for the Indian team. It's always good for Indian cricket when you have guys like these coming in."
Speaking of the combination, the India captain also said that he is likely to go in with three seamers and two spinners. That paves way for Ravichandran Ashwin to return to the XI after missing the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
"Looking at the wicket, it looks like we'll play with two spinners and three seamers. Because what we've seen here, 2017 was the last Test played here and lot of wickets taken by the spinners. Having practiced here as well and with the bounce, we feel that we have to go with the 3-2 combination," Rohit said.
India go into the Test series with relatively inexperienced pace bowling attack. With Jasprit Bumrah out injured and Mohammed Shami rested, it will be Mohammed Siraj, with an experience of 19 Tests, who will lead the attack. India are most likely to pick two of Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar or Jaydev Unadkat to partner Siraj.
Speaking of the inexperience, Rohit said, "This will be a challenge for Indian cricket, for the amount of cricket we play we have to. We have to manage players, rotate them, give them a break and make sure they're fresh when they return.
"We have to keep an eye out on what is coming in the future as well, there is a World Cup coming and we have to keep everyone fresh for it. This is also on our minds. We don't have the luxury to focus on one particular series.
"We have to keep an eye out on the series coming in the future, and who is more necessary for us for the series. We have to rotate our players, and the good thing is we can give new players opportunities and you can create a bench strength. We can see how they handle the pressure of international cricket and see how they cope with it," he said.
"Jaydev [Unadkat] is not a new guy, he's been playing for 10-12 years, he made his debut then. Mukesh Kumar has come in with some consistent performances, he's done well for his state, zonal and India A teams. We'll see what combination we'll play with," added Rohit.
India will take on West Indies in the first of the two-match Test series at the Windsor Park in Roseau from July 12, which is also going to be the first series for India in the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle.
