Pick Your India XI Poll Results: Kuldeep Yadav Gets the Nod as 2nd Spinner, Overwhelming Majority For Rishabh Pant

The votes are in and as India and England set to square off in the series opener at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai starting February 5 with most of India's first-choice players returning to the squad, Cricketnext readers have picked their best Indian XI for the first Test.

While the opening and wicketkeeping slots were pretty much one-sided affairs, among bowlers Kuldeep Yadav has pipped the likes of Washington Sundar and Azar Patel as the second spinner to play alongside Ravichandran Ashwin.

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Based on the voting, the readers have opted for Hardik Pandya as the all-rounder option over a third spinner, while an overwhelming majority has picked Rishabh Pant over Wriddiman Saha for the wicketkeeping duties.

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We gave the readers the opportunity to pick the best XI dividing the choices in terms of positions and skillset, namely Openers, Middle-order, Wicketkeeper, and Bowlers. Fans had to choose two openers, four middle-order players and bowlers, and one wicketkeeper. The results of your votes are in and here is CricketNext Readers' best India XI for the 1st Test:

Openers: Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma

49 and 48 percent votes went in favour of young gun Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma, respectively. It was an expected result keeping in mind Gill's exploit at Brisbane. Rohit Sharma got starts in Australia and considering his stellar record as an opener in India, it sure was a no-brainer to have him slot next to Gill. Mayank Agarwal, who was dropped midway during the Australia series, managed only 3 % of votes and even though he played in the Brisbane Test in the middle-order, the Karnataka batsman misses out.

Middler-order: Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Hardik Pandya

With Kohli returning it was a straightforward choice for the readers for the No.3, 4, and 5 slots in the middle-order and that went to Pujara, Kohli, and his deputy Rahane. Each of the players received 25 % votes each and in the final middle-order slot, the No.6 position, came down to allrounder Pandya and KL Rahul. Will Rahul is not fully fit and is still in rehab, Pandya garnered more votes -17 % cent - as compared to Rahul's 7.

Wicketkeeper: Rishabh Pant

Even though the clamour for fielding the best wicketkeeper in Indian conditions - in Saha - was growing, it was tough to overlook what young Pant achieved in Sydney and Brisbane with his bat. And for that sole reason, the Delhi wicketkeeper-batsman garnered a whopping 93 % votes of the readers for the lone wicketkeeping slot in the XI.

Bowlers: Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav

In the bowling department, as expected Ashwin and Bumrah got the maximum votes - 24 % - each. While it would be interesting to see if management picks the returning veteran Ishant Sharma to partner Bumrah or another young Turk in Mohammad Siraj, who was the highest wicket-taker for India in the Australia series, CricketNext readers went with the experience of Sharma over Siraj. Sharma got 18% of the total votes cast for bowlers as compared to Siraj, who got 8%.

But, the most surprising pick by our readers came in the form of Kuldeep, as the second spinner, garnering 12% of the total votes cast for bowlers, pipping Washington Sundar (8%) and Axar Patel (3%). Shardul Thakur managed 3% of the total votes cast for bowlers. Kuldeep, part of the Australian touring party was overlooked for the Test series despite mounting injuries and even missed a major part of IPL 2020, warming the benches. But, in Indian conditions, a left-arm wrist-spinner is a serious wicekt-taking option. Even though Axar Patel provides a like-for-like replacement for India's second spinner Ravindra Jadeja - who is out of the series - readers opted to go for Kuldeep's unique skill set and experience to bolster the Playing XI.

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