Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has picked his playing XI for the team's first Test against England, starting on June 20 at Headingley in Leeds. The 38-year-old has only picked one spinner in the side while also including both players, uncapped Sai Sudarshan and the returning Karun Nair in the batting line-up.
Batting has been the talking point in the build-up to the England tour as senior players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced their retirement from the Tests last month. KL Rahul is the most experienced batter, followed by wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant in the current Indian team. The latter also confirmed that skipper Shubman Gill will bat at the pivotal number four position, followed by him at number five.
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Meanwhile, Ashwin has backed Sudarshan at the number three role, while he went ahead with bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur instead of Nitish Kumar Reddy.
"KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna," Ashwin named his playing XI for the series opener.
"For No.6, it could be either Karun Nair or Dhruv Jurel. You cannot ignore Karun's form, but I think there is a chance that Jurel comes into the mix. When Bumrah broke down in Australia, we did not have bowling options. So at No.8, do you play Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, or another frontline pacer?" Ashwin said of the team combination on his YouTube channel.
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Ashwin names Chris Woakes as the leading wicket-taker, & Rishabh Pant as leading run-scorer
The former India spinner also picked the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker for the five-Test series. He named Chris Woakes as the highest wicket-taker, while he went with Rishabh Pant as the leading run-scorer.
"If Chris Woakes plays all five matches, I would say he would be the leading wicket-taker of the series, or maybe even Shoaib Bashir. From India, since Bumrah will not play all matches, I think Siraj will be the leading wicket-taker. Have to go with KL Rahul as the leading run-scorer, but because he is opening the batting, he might have a few first-innings glitches. So, I will go with Rishabh Pant instead. Rishabh can only get himself out. Can't look past Joe Root for England, while Ben Duckett is also a good shout," Ashwin added.
The last time India met England in the Test series, Jasprit Bumrah and Joe Root were the leading wicket-taker and run-scorer respectively.
