Ind vs Aus: 5 Players who could be benched in first Test

The most anticipated series of the World Test Championship is set to commence on February 9 as India host Australia in a four-match Test series. The last three Test series between the two sides have been won by the team from the sub-continent out of which two were won on Australian soil. 

Australia would be hoping for a first Test series victory in India since 2004. Australia are coming to the sub-continent with a full-fledged squad, and have covered all the departments. India have also announced a strong squad for the first two Test matches and both the teams would have a selection headache ahead of the first game of the Test series.

Let us look at the five players who could be benched in the first Test.

1) Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav has been excellent in the shortest format of the game and played a vital role for India in 2022. Cricket experts like Ravi Shastri claimed that Suryakumar should be given a chance in the red-ball format and expressed that can be a key difference for Team India in crucial matches. The selectors went for the Mumbai Indians batter instead of Sarfaraz Khan who is currently the top run scorer of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season.  

The explosive batter has also done well in First-Class cricket and has done well to deserve a national call-up. He has scored over 5000 runs in 128 innings with an average of 43 and has 26 fifties and 13 hundreds to his name. He also has a double century to his name and he scores at a decent strike rate of 64 in First-Class cricket.

But chances for a Test debut in the first Test in Nagpur look glim against Australia. Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have already locked down the middle order and only an injury can make him slot into the team. The Indian team usually goes with the combination of five bowlers including Jadeja and Axar who provide extra batting depth, so an addition of a batter to the playing XI is not on the cards.