WTC final: Sunil Gavaskar justifies Ajinkya Rahane’s selection; predicts India’s XI for summit clash against Australia

Veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane was dropped from India’s Test squad after a series of poor performances on the international stage. He was also removed from BCCI’s contracted player list and with that, his future in international cricket looked gloomy.

However, in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy season, the 34-year-old played some brilliant cricket, scoring 634 runs in seven matches, and following the same, Rahane found a place in India’s squad which will take on Australia in the finals of the World Test Championship.

Speaking about the same, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was delighted with Rahane’s inclusion in the mix and stated that it was important since Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are currently out of action. However, the 73-year-old also mentioned that he isn’t quite sure who among KL Rahul and KS Bharat will be warming the bench.

“That was the only change needed for the Indian side. They needed a replacement for Shreyas Iyer. Ajinkya Rahane finds himself in the WTC squad not because of his current IPL form, mind you, he was in a pretty decent form in the Ranji Trophy. He did very well for Mumbai in the domestic season. The question now is in the final eleven, who's going to be playing? Whether it will be KS Bharat the wicket-keeper or KL Rahul. We'll just have to wait and see,” Gavaskar stated while speaking to Star Sports.

Meanwhile, the legendary cricketer also shared his predicted XI of India for the summit clash against Australia. Notably, the former opener picked out-of-favour batter KL Rahul over KS Bharat for the final and also picked Jaydev Unadkat as the third seamer instead of Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur.

“Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill will be my opening picks, Cheteshwar Pujara at three, Virat Kohli at four, Ajinkya Rahane at five, KL Rahul at six who'll keep the wickets as well. Then there will be Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, followed by Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami and Mohd Siraj,” Gavaskar concluded.