The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is tied 1-1 after 3 matches. The fourth match of the series between India and Australia is now being played at the historic ground of Melbourne. The toss has been done for this match starting today i.e. Thursday, 26 December. With the toss, Indian captain Rohit Sharma decided to bowl first. During this, he also named the 11 players of Team India playing in this match. Looking at the Melbourne pitch, it was expected that two spinners would play, which proved to be correct. The Indian captain has made one change for this match and replaced Shubman Gill with Washington Sundar. At the same time, host Australia has made two changes in the playing eleven. 19-year-old young opener Sam Constus will make his debut in place of Nathan McSweeney, while Scott Boland will replace injured Josh Hazlewood.
Spinners usually get help on the Melbourne ground. After the pitch breaks, spinners play a very important role on this pitch on the fourth and fifth day. That is why Team India has decided to field two spinners. This means that Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar will now be seen together in the Indian team. Sundar has performed brilliantly in the recent times. He also makes important contributions with the bat along with the ball.
Sundar has so far taken 24 wickets in 7 Test matches at an average of 23.91. With the bat, he has scored 387 runs at an impressive average of 48.37, which includes 3 fifties. Host Australia has made two changes in the playing eleven. 19-year-old young opener Sam Constus will make his debut in place of Nathan McSweeney, while Scott Boland will replace injured Josh Hazlewood.
However, the question is why Shubman Gill was dropped from the fourth Test. Rohit has not given any specific reason for his exclusion. But his injury and team combination could be a big reason behind this. According to the report, he had injured his hand on the last day of the practice session.
His performance in this series has also not been good, while Nitish Reddy has scored runs consistently. Gill has scored only 60 runs in 3 innings. Reddy has scored 179 runs at an average of 44.75. Apart from this, he can also contribute in bowling. Therefore, Gill had to be sacrificed to play Sundar.
Team India's playing XI:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia's playing XI:
Usman Khawaja, Sam Constus, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon.
