Picture Credit: Instagram/@klrahul
Team India is all geared up for their most important bilateral series this year, the Border Gavaskar Trophy. India and Australia will be locking horns in four Test matches of the series with a spot in the World Test Championship Final up for grabs. India are in dire need of a series win if they are to qualify for the WTC Final and for that, they will need their star players to step up to the challenge.
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Cheteshwar Pujara will be the key batters for India against the likes of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. While Kohli and Sharma were recently in action, in the ODI series against New Zealand, Cheteshwar Pujara was playing for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy. However, KL Rahul has been out of action since the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
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The opening batter was on a break due to personal commitments (his wedding). However, Rahul has ensured that he remains in shape as the batter was seen at the nets ahead of India’s preparatory camp in Nagpur for the first Test. Rahul shared a video of him practising in the nets with the red cherry. The batter is seen working on his defence.
The first Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy will be played in Nagpur from 9-13 February. Both India and Australia have announced a full-strength squad for the first Test. While India will be without Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, and Jasprit Bumrah, Australia might miss Mitchell Starc’s services.
Australia Squad for BGT: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner
India squad for 1st and 2nd Test: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
