Indian pacer Navdeep Saini will make his debut in the longest format of the game, in the third Test of the ongoing four-match series against Australia. Saini has been included in the playing XI, which was announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a few hours back. The 28-year-old was seen training in the nets, in a video uploaded by the BCCI’s official Twitter handle for the clash which will begin tomorrow at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). “Fast & furious! @navdeepsaini96 is all set for his Test debut at the @scg tomorrow. #TeamIndia #AUSvIND,” read the caption on the tweet.
Fast & furious! @navdeepsaini96 is all set for his Test debut at the @scg tomorrow. #TeamIndia #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/gHMn4oUOk3
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 6, 2021
Opener Rohit Sharma will be making his maiden appearance in the ongoing four-match Test series against Australia. He was also named vice-captain for the remaining two games.
Rohit has replaced Mayank Agarwal at the top of the order, with the latter opening the innings in the first two matches at the Adelaide Oval and Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Agarwal returned scores of 17, 9, 0 and 5 in the opening two Tests.
Saini has been included in place of Umesh Yadav, who has been ruled out of the series having suffered a calf muscle injury during the Boxing Day Test.
Promoted
The rest of the line-up remains the same as that for the Melbourne Test.
India XI for third Test: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini.