Prior to the first Test starting on November 22, the Indian cricket team, captained by skipper Jasprit Bumrah, finished a few training sessions in Perth’s Optus Stadium.

Since Shubman Gill fractured his thumb and Rohit Sharma is in Mumbai on family duties, there will be significant alterations to the regular Indian team’s starting lineup for the first Test. This creates two openings, with Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal or KL Rahul most likely to start.

KL and Yashasvi Jaiswal will start the innings. With Padikkal, Rahul may be ranked number three. Rahul had a very lengthy spell in the nets session and was in his element. He participated in the unofficial Test match between Australia A and India A, but he did not impress, finishing with poor scores in both innings. He was dismissed in the second inning, leaving just a spinner’s delivery, which drew harsh criticism.

Rahul may be taking up the opener’s job in Perth, however, considering he has previously started the innings and has solid experience playing in foreign environments.

At MCG, Easwaran was completely outmatched by the moving ball, and because he batted with the bowlers in the nets, it is doubtful that he would gain an advantage over Padikkal.

The lanky left-hander Padikkal had a strong showing in the India A vs. Australia A matches, and the selectors and think tank quickly asked Padikkal to remain in Australia as a backup after Rohit and Shubman were ruled out of the first Test.

Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan are fighting for a spot at number six, while Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant occupy the fourth and fifth positions.

Given how the batter performed in the unofficial Test match between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the odds are in Jurel’s favor. Jurel also made an impression during the Indian team’s match simulation, which was held last week at the WACA Ground in Perth.

As a bowling all-rounder, Nitish Kumar Reddy may be selected to play in the lower order, which would also provide India with a useful lower order batsman. Morne Morkel, the bowling coach for the Indian squad, spent a lot of time with Nitish Kumar Reddy, and the young player from Hyderabad may be selected.

Given that Alex Carey, Travis Head, and Usman Khawaja are all left-handers and that the off-spinner has a strong record against Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, Ravichandran Ashwin would be the only guy in India’s spin department.

India’s new-ball bowlers will be Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, while one of Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, or Prasidh Krishna will be selected to occupy a lower-order spot.

Given that Bumrah would be captaining the team and will have to bear the additional responsibility, Siraj will need to play a bigger part in the bowling department with both the new and old ball.

The main weakness in India’s defenses, and it’s a rather significant one, is that Padikkal, Jurel, Reddy, Rana, and Prasidh have played in less than ten Test matches between them.