India made a host of changes in their playing XI as they eye a comeback in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia
India will hand Test debuts to batsman Shubman Gill and pacer Mohammed Siraj when they take on Australia in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, starting Saturday. Keeping with the tradition, the visitors announced their playing on the eve of the match.
Gill replaced struggling Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order while Siraj came in for the injured Mohammed Shami. Jadeja is effectively Virat Kohli's replacement with the skipper taking paternity leave. Pant took the wicketkeeping responsibility from Wriddhiman Saha.
India lost the first match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series by eight wickets inside three days. Despite dominating the Aussies for the first two days in Adelaide, the visitors crashed to a humiliating defeat after recording their lowest-ever score of 36 runs in the second innings.
Aussies are likely to retain the same XI.
India's confirmed playing XI: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia's likely XI: Tim Paine (captain and wk), Joe Burns, Matthew Wade, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon.