India Changes For Sydney
Natarajan for Yadav, Rohit named new deputy
Pace bowler Thangarasu Natarajan will replace Umesh Yadav in the India squad for the last two Test matches against Australia to be played in Sydney and Brisbane.
Rohit Sharma, who spent his second consecutive day training at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterdy as the rest of the Indian team unwound, has been picked as vicecaptain of the Indian team for the remaining Tests.
Board for Control for Cricket in India (BCC) also added that Shardul Thakur had been added to the squad in place of Mohammed Shami, who was hit on his bowling arm during the first Test in Adelaide. Umesh had sustained a strain in his left calf muscle on the third day of the second Test in Melbourne early in Australia’s second innings. Rahane is the stand-in captain in place of regular skipper Virat Kohli who has returned to attend the birth of his child.
Rohit, who has not played any competitive cricket since leading Mumbai Indians to title victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in early November, had arrived in Australia in mid-December and had been under quarantine for the past two weeks in Sydney. He had been recuperating in India from a hamstring injury sustained during the IPL.
He had got permanently slotted at the top of the batting order but injury forced him to miss the twoTest series against New Zealand where Prithvi Shaw opened.
Rohit could now open with Shubman Gill in the third Test in place of out-of-form Mayank Agarwal although Ravi Shastri had said this week that they will talk to him and see if he is fit enough.
Plans To Put Pressure
Indian Bowling Under
Meanwhile, Australia No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne, who praised the Indian bowlers for discipline and holding straight lines to throttle scoring, says that Australian batsmen need to come up with ways of attacking the Indian bowling especially by targeting certain bowlers. Both Labuschagne and Steve Smith, the mainstays of Australian batting, have struggled to get going in the series with the latter aggregating just 10 in four innings.
Labuschagne added that the field placements with heavy emphasis on the leg-side and bringing fielders in play for catches has worked well for the Indians but he added that the Aussies will discover plans to put them under pressure.”
India squad for the last two Tests: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Thangarasu Natarajan. Gulf Today