Indian team for Sydney Test: Rohit Sharma replaces Mayank Agarwal, Saini to debut

Rohit Sharma will play his first Test match in more than a year after he was included in India's playing XI for the third Test against Australia, starting in Sydney from January 7.

Rohit Sharma hasn't played Test cricket in over a year.

Rohit Sharma will play his first Test match in more than a year after he was included in India's playing XI for the third Test against Australia, starting in Sydney from January 7. Rohit was ruled out of India's tour of New Zealand early last year and the first two Tests of this Border-Gavaskar series due to injuries.

 

Rohit, opening the batting in Test cricket for the first time in home series against South Africa and Bangladesh, made scores of 176, 127, 14, 212, 6 and 21. He has been promoted to Test vice-captaincy and will open the batting in Sydney. Rohit replaces Mayank Agarwal, who is going through a lean patch with the bat.

 

Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini is set to make his Test debut. He comes in place of Umesh Yadav, who injured his calf muscle during the Boxing Day Test. Saini got the nod ahead of T Natarajan, who replaced Yadav, and Shardul Thakur who was added to the squad as Mohammed Shami's replacement.

India XI: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini.