There is a lot at stake for India when they take on Australia in a four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home starting February 9. The hosts will be looking to continue their marvellous winning streak in Tests at home since 2012, retain the trophy for the fourth successive time and rise to the top position in ICC Test rankings. But the most significant of them will be their aim to seal the spot for the final of the World Test Championship. Rohit Sharma and the team management hence needs to put on a perfect playing XI for the Australia series and former head coach Ravi Shastri has a perfect suggestion for the team.
India will miss the services of three of their mainstay players - Rishabh Pant (recovering from a car accident), Shreyas Iyer (back injury, albeit for the 1st Test only), and Jasprit Bumrah (also back injury). With two key middle-order batters out, Shastri feels that India should bring in Suryakumar Yadav into the XI.
The 32-year-old has been a threat to opposition in white-ball cricket over the last two years, a run that gave selectors a confidence in including him in the red-ball format. Shastri feels that his counter-attacking abilities would prove vital for India on spinning conditions.
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“Suryakumar Yadav might get the opportunity in that Test match. And he’s going to play his natural game. I think he’s one player who will be proactive. Especially with Nathan Lyon or the other spinners, he will be looking to score all the time, looking to rotate the strike. If you want to do well in India, you have got to rotate the strike. You can’t have bowlers bowling maidens at you. You have got to find a way where you want to score, not think of just blocking, because that can create real problems for you," he said in an interaction organised by Star Sports.
{{/usCountry}}“Suryakumar Yadav might get the opportunity in that Test match. And he’s going to play his natural game. I think he’s one player who will be proactive. Especially with Nathan Lyon or the other spinners, he will be looking to score all the time, looking to rotate the strike. If you want to do well in India, you have got to rotate the strike. You can’t have bowlers bowling maidens at you. You have got to find a way where you want to score, not think of just blocking, because that can create real problems for you," he said in an interaction organised by Star Sports.
{{/usCountry}}"So I think he will be very useful in that position. He might come and play a little cameo on a track that is spinning a lot, where a 30 or 40 could decide the fate of a game. And he can get it quickly and disrupt the opposition. So India will be thinking in that fashion there,” he added.
Suryakumar, however, only made a return to red-ball cricket after three years of gap last December. He then played three Ranji Trophy matches for Mumbai scoring 223 runs at a strike rate of 95.70.