Rohit Sharma's India To Bowl First in WTC Final; No Ashwin as Umesh, Shardul Get a Go-Ahead
For the much-awaited World Test Championship Test (WTC) Final 2023 between India and Australia, Rohit Sharma has won the toss and has decided to bowl first against Pat Cummins' Australia at the Oval. The Indian unit has decided to play Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav over the 474-wicket Test veteran Ravichandran Ashwin in the pinnacle Test encounter. Australia, on the flip side, had already announced their Playing XI on the eve of the game.
Rohit Sharma and company has decided to play four seamers and a spinner, apart from KS Bharat being their keeper-batter. Meanwhile, this fixture will also be the return of India's Test maestro batter Ajinkya Rahane, who last played a Test match for India 18 months ago.
WTC Final 2023: Playing XIs
India: Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav.
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.
The result of this encounter, which is touted as the biggest Test fixture ever, will crown one of the two teams to bank all ICC trophies. India will be fighting for its sixth ICC silverware, whereas, Australia already have won eight World Cups.
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