The two top teams of the World Test Championship cycle 2021-23 – Australia and India – will take on each other in the summit clash. Australia, led by Pat Cummins, finished at the numero uno position in the table with 11 wins, three losses, and five draws, and a win percentage of 66.67.
On the other hand, India finished in second place in the points table with 10 wins, five losses, and three draws. The Rohit Sharma-led team had a win percentage of 58.80.
India has some selection headaches going into the summit clash. Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid could be scratching their heads about whom to pick between Ishan Kishan and KS Bharat for the wicket-keeping role.
While Kishan provides more batting depth, Bharat provides more assurance behind the wickets. Kishan scored 454 runs in 15 matches at an average of 30.27 and a strike rate of 142.76 in IPL 2023 for Mumbai Indians and looked in decent touch.
Bharat, on the other hand, had scored only 101 runs in four Test matches against Australia earlier in the year and thus place could be in jeopardy. But Bharat might get the nod ahead of Kishan, who hasn’t yet made his Test debut.
Meanwhile, the Indian players have enough game time while playing in the IPL, the same is not true for all the Australian players. Labuschagne and Smith played in County cricket and both of them will hold the key for the Aussies.
Furthermore, the conditions at the Oval could suit the spinners and thus India could play their two spinners -Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Match Prediction: India might enter the contest as favorites against Australia.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan.
Standby players: Suryakumar Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (C), Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Michael Neser.
