India have left out Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana and included spin-bowling allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and medium pacer Akash Deep in their playing XI for the Gabba Test against Australia. The visitors have won the toss and elected to field first in the 3rd Test.
Both Ashwin and Rana had failed to impress the team management in Adelaide and therefore their exclusion seems justified. While Ashwin bagged 1/53, Rana couldn't even bag a single wicket and returned figures of 0/86. Rana also had a nightmarish experience with the willow in hand as he bagged a pair.
Skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed that the mood in the dressing room is "buzzing" despite the 10-wicket thrashing that came India's way in the pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Oval. "It's absolutely buzzing, the guys are looking forward to the match, we're looking forward to coming out here and playing," Rohit said at the toss.
The India captain admitted that his side was far from its best in the pink-ball Test and failed to "capture some moments" which led to the huge loss.
"We're going to bowl first. Little bit overcast and little bit of grass, looks a bit soft as well, want to make best use of the conditions. Lots of cricket to be played, both teams have played good cricket in the last two games. Big game for us here, we'll do what is expected of us. We'll play good cricket, we understand we have to capture some moments, we didn't do that in the previous game which is why we lost," Rohit added.
Notably, India were victorious in their last Test outing at the Gabba in January 2021.
India's playing XI for the Gabba Test:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Rohit Sharma(c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
