Sunil Gavaskar names his Indian playing XI for WTC final, picks KS Bharat over Ishan Kishan

Tags: ICC World Test Championship Final 2023, India, Australia, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, Ishan Pranav Kumar Pandey Kishan, Kona Srikar Bharat

Published on: Jun 05, 2023

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has named his preferred Indian playing XI for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. The summit clash of the Test championship will be held at The Oval from June 7 to 11

Enter Blog Content hereIndia will be featuring in their second consecutive final, having gone down to New Zealand by eight wickets in the maiden WTC final in Southampton by eight wickets in 2021.

Speaking to Star Sports, Gavaskar backed Bharat to don the gloves in the WTC final against Australia despite his poor showing in the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy against the same opponents. Bharat managed only 101 runs in six innings at an average of 20.20.

Naming his preferred playing XI, Gavaskar stated that he would go in with a three-two pace-spin combination. The former Indian captain said, "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.”

Admitting that the No. 6 position is a concern, he added that India will have to choose between Bharat and Kishan. Sharing his views on the conundrum, he commented, "I would imagine No. 6 would be either (KS) 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.”

Shifting focus to the bowling, Gavaskar left out Axar Patel, who was outstanding with the bat for India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He instead went for Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin as the two spin-bowling all-round options. The 73-year-old said, "No. 7 will be Jadeja. If it's a bright day and a bright prediction, then I think you are looking at Jadeja and Ashwin at No. 7 and No. 8.”

Speaking about the last three positions in the Indian playing XI for the WTC final against Australia, Gavaskar concluded, "No. 9, 10 and 11 will be Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj and maybe Shardul Thakur.”

Sunil Gavakar's Preferred Indian XI for WTC final: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur

--By A Cricket Correspondent

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