WI vs IND: India’s predicted playing XI for 1st Test

After losing two consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) finals, the Indian team will be rearing to start their 2023-25 WTC cycle on a positive note with a win over the West Indies side. This tour to the Caribbean soil is one of the three away tours which the Indian side will be playing in this cycle. After the defeat in the summit clash with the Australians, there had been a lot of talk around the continuous failure of the Indian middle-order star batter who had failed to perform in the finals of the WTC as well as throughout the WTC cycle.

There was a continuous demand for formidable changes that had to be made in the Test team marking the dawn of a new era and hence the team selected for the tour shows clearly that. The veteran Indian batter, Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped from the team and young Yashasvi Jaiswal was brought into the Indian setup. Considering all the injuries and concerns surrounding the team, the selectors did manage to do a good job in selecting the fast bowlers for the series. 

Top-order 

With three front line openers that  have been selected in the squad, it is going to be quite interesting to see who the team management as well as captain feel about grasping the opening role. One spot is pretty much obvious that the skipper Rohit Sharma will be opening the batting with most probably Yashasvi Jaiswal. Jaiswal has been in tremendous form recently, both in white ball as well as red ball cricket.

The star Indian batter, Shubman Gill will be given a new role of batting in number three position as he has played handful innings at this very number on India A tours. Gill has been an asset to the team over the years and has certainly shown that India have a bright future with him being around

Middle-order, Wicketkeeper, Allrounders

There is no brainer that Virat Kohli will be in at number four as the amount of runs that he has in his career batting at that spot is certainly fantastic. Kohli would definitely be looking to better his numbers in the longest format of the game. Ajinkya Rahane, will be certainly holding on to his number five spot after a tremendous outing in the WTC Final.

One of the surprising changes that fans will be expecting will be of Ishan Kishan coming in as the wicketkeeper- batter, in the place of Srikar Bharat who hadn’t cemented his spot in the limited opportunities that he had got.

The Indian team will be definitely opting for Ravichandran Ashwin as well as Ravindra Jadeja as the two all-rounders who can be devastating both with the bat as well as bowl. Their inclusion also increases the depth of Indian batting. 

Bowlers

Apart from Ashwin and Jadeja India will also be looking into add three frontline pacers in the squad. With the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Jaydev Unadkat being the firm favorites to start the Test match, there will be a tossup between Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Saini for the third pacer. Mukesh has been in tremendous form in the red ball cricket while Navdeep Saini who has earned a call up for the Test side after last playing in 2021.  

Probable Playing XI

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice Captain), Ishan Kishan (Wicket Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj and Mukesh Kumar.