India's latest white-ball sensation Suryakumar Yadav has been the hot topic ahead of the first Test between India and Australia which will be played in Nagpur from February 9. In the last two years, Suryakumar has revolutionised India's white-ball setup with many of his stunning knocks which also saw a fine display of his outrageous shots which has left the cricketing world talking. Suryakumar is rapidly inching towards becoming an all-format player for India.
Touted as India's MR. 360, Surya has a high chance of making India's red ball setup in the upcoming series against Australia. With Shreya's Iyer ruled out and Rishabh Pant injured, India's middle order lacks someone who could tackle spin and SKY's latest Instagram has dropped a big hint on his Test debut in the first Test against Australia in Nagpur.
SKY on his social media handle posted a story which features a Red Ball photo and captioned it 'Hello Friend.' This could be an indication that he would fill the void caused by the absence of Rishabh Pant, who is out for a long time following his fatal car accident in December. With Surya's exploit in limited-overs cricket, he is the best candidate to replace Pant in terms of batting. Rishabh Pant has been a match-winner lately for India in whites at least and if India need to fill that void, SKY is the likely candidate.
Suryakumar is expected to bat at no.6 for India if given chance, with KL Rahul slotted at the no.5 spot. With Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill likely to open followed by Cheteshwar Pujara at no.3 and Virat Kohli at no.4, the availability of Rahul, Surya and Ravindra Jadeja in the middle order and R Ashwin at 8 will make for a strong batting line-up.
SKY's white ball numbers aren't the only factor backing him for a call-up in the first Test but his first-class average of 44.75 is a crucial factor too. Having scored 559 runs from 79 games, including 14 hundreds and 28 fifties.
Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 schedule:
1st Test at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur - February 9-13
2nd Test at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi - February 17-21
3rd Test at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala - March 1-5
4th Test at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad - March 9-13
India’s squad for the first two Tests vs Australia: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia Test squad for India tour: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
