Ashwin, Jadeja dropped; Nitish, Harshit make debut in IND vs AUS 1st Test | Cricket News

Veteran Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja missed from India’s playing XI for the first Test match against Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth for the opener of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 on Friday. 

Ravindra Jadeja with Ravichandran Ashwin during the 3rd day of the 1st test match between India and Sri Lanka. (Photo credit: PTI)

New Delhi: Veteran Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja missed from India’s playing XI for the first Test match against Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth for the opener of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 on Friday.

Youngsters Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana earned their maiden Test caps as India field a four-pronged pace attack led by stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah. Regular captain Rohit Sharma will be unavailable to play for the first match after opting to stay back in India following the birth of his second child.

As many as five Indian players will play their first Test match in Australia after Karnataka player Devdutt Padikkal was held back after the India A tour to chip in as a cover for Rohit Sharma. Padikkal is likely to be slotted in at No.3 in the batting order with Yashasvi Jaiswal to have a new opening partner in KL Rahul.

UPDATE: Shubman Gill sustained a left thumb injury during Day 2 of match simulation at The WACA. He was not considered for selection for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring his progress on a daily basis.#TeamIndia | #AUSvIND

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 22, 2024

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli will cement his place at No.4. Wicketkeepers Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel will be key in the middle order with the former to don the gloves behind the wickets. All-rounder Washington Sundar has pipped Ashwin and Jadeja to take the lone spinner’s spot in the Indian team after coming from a terrific home series against New Zealand, where he bagged 16 wickets in two matches, including a 10-wicket match haul in Pune.

Mohammed Siraj will join Bumrah to brace up the challenge to bowl the new ball.

India playing XI vs Australia 1st Test: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj

Viransh Shah

Viransh is an Indian Sports journalist who has covered sports such as Table Tennis, Squash, Cricket, Volleyball, Hockey, and Badminton both off the field and on the desk. Viransh has a knack of getting on the ground at times in search of stories, but always ensures to verify them from multiple sources and exercises patience when gathering all relevant facts for the stories presented in his articles.

Viransh’s interest in Indian sports piqued after PV Sindhu’s silver medal win at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and was further intensified by Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Viransh considers his featured interview with young Indian table tennis player Sreeja Akula as one of his best achievements in his short sports journalism career thus far.

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