New Delhi, India

India are set to face Australia in the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final starting on June 07 (Wednesday) at the Kennington Oval, London. This will be India's second consecutive shot at winning the coveted Test mace after finishing second in the inaugural WTC cycle. Facing the second-ranked Australian team will be a huge challenge for India but Rohit Sharma & Co. have a strong squad at their disposal to compete hard with the Aussies.

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In their last series, India defeated Australia in the 2022/23 Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home (winning 2-1). However, playing the WTC summit clash at The Oval, London will pose a different challenge for both teams. Ahead of the finale, Little Master Sunil Gavaskar opened up on India's possible XI and highlighted a slot that might be a bit of a concern for No. 1 ranked Team India. 

'No. 6 is where there is just a little bit of a concern'

“I will talk about the batting, and that will be Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill as one-two. No. 3 is (Cheteshwar) Pujara, No. 4 is (Virat) Kohli, No. 5 is Ajinkya Rahane. No. 6 is where there is just a little bit of a concern,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

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Also Read: WTC Final: Australia favourites on paper but Indian players have edge in...' - Ravi Shastri's big claim

Gavaskar asserted, “I would imagine No. 6 would be either (Srikar) Bharat or Ishan Kishan. They are talking about Bharat because he has played all these matches so far. So will probably stick with Bharat at six,” He added, “No. 7 will be (Ravindra) Jadeja. If it’s a bright day and a bright prediction, then I think you are looking at Jadeja and (Ravichandran) Ashwin at No. 7 and No. 8. No. 9, 10 and 11 will be Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj and maybe Shardul Thakur."

If India emerge on top in the WTC final, they will break their ten-year-long ICC-title drought. Their last major title came in 2013 under legendary skipper MS Dhoni when they lifted the Champions Trophy.

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India's final squad for WTC final:

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk)

Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav

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