India announce playing XI for WTC final, include both Ashwin and Jadeja

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced India’s playing XI for the World Test Championship final. The Virat Kohli led side, as confirmed earlier, will open with Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma with Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant to follow. India have opted for two spinners and have included both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. While Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were certain to start, India were in a dilemma to select between Mohammad Siraj and Ishant Sharma and they opted for the experience of Ishant Shama. 

Advertisment

Meanwhile, the pitch have curator confirmed that they are preparing a fast and bouncy pitch for the final thus the move to include two spinners looks like a dicey call. However, with both Ashwin and Jadeja at their disposal, India have added a lot of depth to the team.

The mouth-watering encounter will get underway on June 18 at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. However, the weather is expected to play the spoilsport. The ICC has kept in place a reserve day (June 23) in case some time is lost due to bad weather.

The reserve day, however, cannot be used to get to a result but only as a compensation mechanism for the lost time. The ICC has also clarified that only the numbers of over lost will be played on the reserve day and not an entire day will be used. 

Advertisment

In case the WTC ends in a draw, the trophy will be shared by India and New Zealand. New Zealand displaced India as the No.1 ranked team but Virat Kohli's men will have an opportunity to regain their throne if they win the WTC final.

India’s playing XI: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami