India and Sri Lanka will be taking on each other for the first Test of the 3-match series from November 16 at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Sri Lankans will be looking forward to taking the revenge of their 9-0 humiliation caused by the Indians when they hosted India in July-September earlier this year. India had beaten the Islanders by an innings in two of the Tests and won the series 3-0.
However, Sri Lanka recently whitewashed Pakistan 2-0 in a two-match Test series in Dubai but they end by getting clean swept in the ODIs and T20Is. On the other hand, the Indian cricket team is looking to end an extremely successful year on a high by affecting another 9-0 against Sri Lanka.
Despite resting Hardik Pandya for the Test series, Indian squad looks pretty lethal and it gets further strengthened with the inclusion of Murali Vijay. His return to the squad will give a sweet headache to Virat Kohli in choosing any two between, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, and Vijay.
Pujara and Kohli will surely be occupying the crucial positions of no.3 and no.4 followed by Ajinkya Rahane coming in at no.5. But, with seeing Rohit Sharma’s record in Kolkata, he might get a chance to play the first Test and if that happens he might be seeing batting at no.6 and Wriddhiman Saha will come in at no.7, with all-rounder Ashwin and Jadeja following him.
India might also go with 3 pacers considering the morning haze in Kolkata and the overcast conditions, but the inclusion of 3rd pacer Rohit will surely be eliminated. the first choice option for the third pacer is none other than Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is a swing bowler and can use the condition at the Eden gardens to the fullest. The other pacers will surely be Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami as they have been permanent cogs in the longest format for India.
India will be hoping for a repeat of the Sri Lanka tour where they won the Test series 3-0.
Here is India’s probable XI for the first Test:
M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav.
