IND vs AUS: India and Australia are locking horns in the high-profile Border Gavaskar Trophy. The home side India are leading the series 2-1 and have their eyes set on the World Test Championship final, which will be played in June at the Oval. The Indian team will need to adapt to the English conditions in June quickly and would need to pick their best possible XI for the WTC final, in which they are yet to confirm their spot.
Meanwhile, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels India shall tweak their batting lineup and can play both Shubman Gill and KL Rahul in the same team. Notably, India rested their opener KL Rahul and picked Shubman Gill in the third test in Indore. “With someone like KL Rahul having gone out of this side and Shubman Gill having come in, both these guys have played a bit of Test match cricket and you could potentially have both of those guys in the same team,” Ponting said.
He feels both the players have played some test cricket and Rahul’s experience in English conditions can be a handful thing. “Maybe Shubman could start at the top and KL could potentially move down into the middle order because he’s played cricket in those (English) conditions before, albeit at the top of the order. But one thing we know about the UK is that the ball swings for long periods of time during the day. And if the overhead conditions are suitable, then the ball tends to swing right the way through an inning,” Ponting added.
Notably, the former Australian great also advocated that India need to be spot on with picking their best team for the final. “Because it’s just a one-off Test match, it will be really important to pick the team that you think is going to have the most success in those conditions,” Ponting said. “The Oval can be a really, really good place to bat as long as the sun is out, it’s probably as good a wicket as any in the UK. So I think that’s what it would come down to for India. It would just come down to assessing the conditions and then maybe forgetting about this last series that’s just been played. The conditions that we’re seeing here (in India) are quite extreme,” he added.
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