Former Australia left-arm chinaman bowler Brad Hogg snubbed KL Rahul and Axar Patel in his predicted playing XI for first Test against Bangladesh starting September 19. Hogg gave Jadeja a promotion in the batting order putting him at no.5 ahead of Rishabh Pant.
Hogg picked Sarfaraz Khan instead of Rahul in the middle order. Meanwhile, Sarfaraz has not been released from India B’s Duleep Trophy 2024 squad and Rahul is highly likely to feature in the Test against Najmul Hossain Shanto’s side in Chennai.
“The XI that I am going or the first Test match against Bangladesh for India – Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma open the batting. Gill at three, Kohli at 4, and Jadeja coming at five just to keep that left-handed right-hand combination going. Sarfaraz Khan, Pant and then you’re into the bowlers, where you’ve got Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Siraj, and Bumrah,” said Hogg.
Hogg went with left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav ahead of Axar Patel who scored a gritty 86 and bagged three wickets for India D against India C in Duleep Trophy 2024’s first round. He picked three spinners and two pacers.
Hogg treats Bangladesh series as warm-up for Australian summer
Hogg feels that the current team will do well in Australian conditions too. He treats the Test series against Bangladesh as a warm-up for Rohit Sharma’s brigade.
“That team will go pretty well down in Australia as well. So, they’ve got to start warming up for the Australian summer. India, so this will be a good start for them. No KL Rahul or Axar Patel in my playing XI,” the 53-year-old added.
Hogg ignoring Rahul from the team combination may have been based on his lacklustre record against Bangladesh. He has scored just 69 runs from six innings against them. However, he proved his mettle in the Duleep Trophy clash for India A against India B registering scores of 37 and 57.
Hogg’s India Playing XI for 1st Test vs Bangladesh:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
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