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The inclusion of Ishan Kishan as a direct replacement for the injured KL Rahul and the addition of three standby players provides India with added flexibility at selection heading into next month's ICC World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval.
There were some late changes to India's squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia with Kishan, who replaced Rahul in the main squad, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav and Mukesh Kumar (all on standby) now part of their plans. As the big clash at The Oval that begins on June 7 approaches, a look at the talking points from India's latest squad changes. More keeping options India's squad for the WTC final now has Ishan Kishan as a wicket-keeping option aside from KS Bharat, the incumbent who played each of the four Tests during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at home earlier this year. While KL Rahul could have been a backup wicket-keeping option, Kishan is the more accomplished keeper and will now be in a direct tussle with Bharat for the crucial slot behind the stumps. Bharat and Kishan have comparable first-class records. The former averages 37.27 after 90 first-class games with nine hundreds and more than 300 catches. Kishan, on the other hand, has a first-class average of 38.76 with six tons in 48 games and 110 dismissals. Bharat's Test career hasn't quite taken off yet with his four Tests yielding just 101 runs. Kishan, on the other hand, is more in the mould of Rishabh Pant, who isn't part of the squad after a car accident earlier in the year. Pace bowlers nursing injuries India were dealt a huge blow when Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the World Test Championship final and now they have two more fast bowlers from the squad carrying injuries that could potentially rule them out of the marquee event. Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat suffered a left shoulder injury in the nets during the IPL and Umesh Yadav also sustained a minor left hamstring injury during the T20 league. Experienced duo Mohammed Siraj and Mohammad Shami are two of their likely first-choice quicks, but there is at least one and possibly two more slots up for grabs for the quicks in the one-off Test. Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Unadkat are in contention for those, but there's also the uncapped Mukesh Kumar, who is on the standby list. Batting options in plenty to ponder a different approach As risky as it sounds for a winner takes all one-off Test match, India do have the resources to borrow England's highly successful aggressive approach in Test cricket and catch Australia by surprise. Aside from Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill at the top, Kishan, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane are fluent batters with a penchant for stroke-making. The addition of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suryakumar Yadav as standbys over some of the other recent backup options - like Abhimanyu Easwaran - India have tried suggests that they could be gauging the advantages of going more positive with the bat to counter Australia's strong bowling attack. With veteran No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara as the fail-safe, India potentially have a group of batters that could take the bull by the horns in the big final. Updated 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, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk). Standby players: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav. (ANI)
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