WTC Final: 'Ashwin is not going to play...:' Skipper Rohit Sharma opens up on India's Playing XI vs Australia
India skipper Rohit Sharma (Source: @ICC)
India and Australia are set to face off each other in the second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final from Wednesday in England and the conditions in London are playing on the mind of both teams' skippers to decided their best XI.
While Australia skipper Pat Cummins all but confirmed Australia's XI with 'no surprises,' India skipper Rohit Sharma, along with the team management, is going to wait till the toss and pick their best XI depending on the conditions prevalent at the time .
With KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant out with injury and fast-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya not in the squad, India's batting looks a bit thin which means Ravindra Jadeja might be a surety in the squad. Ravi Ashwin, in that case, may or may not play, given the weather conditions in England do not require more than one spinner in the playing XI often.
India skipper Rohit Sharma, however, said on the eve of the Test that he's going to wait till the final day to take a call on the XI.
"Yeah, see, I've not said that Ashwin is not going to play. We'll wait until tomorrow - because one thing I have seen here - the pitch actually changes quite a bit from day to day. Today it's looking the way it is. Tomorrow it might be slightly different, who knows. So the message to the boys has been very clear, all 15 must be ready to play at any point in time. And we'll see the conditions tomorrow as well and make that decision as to who gets into that playing 11," Rohit said on Tuesday.
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Rohit also added that the he'll go and have a look at the pitch and consider all the factors like slowness, wear and tear, reverse and others before taking the final call.
"I'll go and have a look at the pitch. But yeah, it looks a bit of help for the seamers definitely. With the overhead conditions as well, it's going to assist seamers a fair bit. I don't know how drastically the pitch changes quite a bit in this part of the world. Like, when we played the last test match here in Oval, it looked very similar to this. And then as the game went on, as the day went on, it got better and better, slower and slower. And the reverse swing came into play as well on day 5th. So, yeah, we're going to consider all of those factors and see what will be the right combination for us to go," added the skipper.
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