The veteran Indian opener, Rohit Sharma will be coming out tt open the innings in the third Test against Australia in Sydney with Shubman Gill. Even the young pacer, Navdeep Saini will also be making his Test debut in the third Test against Australia as India announced their playing XI for the all-important match which is scheduled to commence on Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Rohit’s inclusion means Mayank Agarwal will have to warm the bench after he failed to garner significant scores in the first two Tests. On the other hand, Navdeep Saini will be coming into the XI as a replacement for Umesh Yadav.

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Yadav had suffered an injury during the second innings of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. He had sustained a strain in his left calf muscle which was revealed after he underwent scans later that day. The BCCI further stated that the fast bowler won’t be able to recover completely ahead of the last couple of Test matches and hence, was ruled out of the series.

NEWS – #TeamIndia announce Playing XI for the 3rd Test against Australia at the SCG.

Navdeep Saini is all set to make his debut.#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/lCZNGda8UD

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 6, 2021

Stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane said Rohit, who is also named as the deputy skipper of the team, has been batting really well in the nets and he will be expected to bat in the top-order in the Pink Test. Rahne said, “He [Rohit] has been batting really well, the last couple of series, he has been playing as an opener, so you will definitely see him batting at the top.”

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India have decided to go with the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who shared a total of 8 wickets at the MCG, which India won by 8 wickets.

India’s Playing XI vs Australia for 3rd Test: Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah