Suryakumar Yadav, who is formidable in T20Is, finally received his cap for the longest format for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series on Thursday (February 9) at the Vidarbha Cricket Stadium in Nagpur.
Many eyebrows were definitely raised on giving Suryakumar, who is a natural T20I batter, the chance in the all-important series against Australia. But the management might have thought of adding Surya, keeping in mind his attacking cricket.
For the first time since 2013, two players made their debut for India in Tests. Apart from Surya, another one is KS Bharat. Bharat is donning the wicketkeeping gloves in the absence of Rishabh Pant who is recovering from injury after his car crash last year in December.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Twitter handle shared a video of the two players receiving their respective caps. Former Team India coach Ravi Shastri handed the cap to Surya, while it was veteran Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who gave the debut cap to KS Bharat.
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Check how Twitter reacted to Suryakumar Yadav’s Test debut
Australia skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first. “We are going to bat. Looks like a pretty even wicket toward the middle. 2017 was a big series. Cannot wait to get this started. We have had good preparation. We feel we are really well placed. Two changes Todd Murphy in. (Peter) Handscomb in for Travis Head.
India are playing three spinners- Ravichandran Ashwin, and two left-arm spinners, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel. Ashwin is yet to start his spell.
At the time of writing this article, two right-handed batsmen Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne are playing at 10* and 20* respectively.
Australia have scored 40/2 in 17 overs. The Aussies might have prepared more for the spinners but it’s the Indian pacers, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami, who gave India two early breakthroughs when they dismissed the two openers- Usman Khawaja and David Warner .
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