Team Selector: Pick your India XI to take on Sri Lanka in the upcoming Test series that kicks off on March 4 at Mohali.
India will round off their home season with a two-Test series against Sri Lanka. The series is important on several levels: it marks Virat Kohli’s 100th Test match, it will be Rohit Sharma’s debut series as the Test skipper, and also carries valuable World Test Championship points.
After India’s surprise loss in South Africa, they would look to gain maximum points out of this series in order to boost their chances to qualify for the WTC final. Dimuth Karunaratne’s Sri Lanka might not be as strong as the Sri Lanka of 90s and 2000s, but it has shown that it can hold its own even against stronger opponents.
They will be missing their regular vice-captain KL Rahul, while the likes of Wriddhiman Saha and Ishant Sharma have been dropped.
This leaves the India management with several selection headaches. There is the opener’s quandary – dealing with the batters most likely to partner Rohit at the top. There is also the question as to who would replace Chesteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the middle order.
While Ravichandran Ashwin is returning from an injury, Ravindra Jadeja will be seen in Test colours for the first time since December. In Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, and Saurabh Kumar, India have three other options they can select their spinners from.
While Rohit and Rahul Dravid have to make these calls tomorrow, you can decide on it right away with our team selector.
India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Priyank Panchal, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Shubhman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, R. Ashwin (subject to fitness clearance), Kuldeep Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (vc).
