India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat in the third Test against Australia here on Wednesday with young opener Shubman Gill coming in place of KL Rahul.
India also decided to rest pace bowler Mohammed Shami, bringing in Umesh Yadav for the game.
Australia also made two changes to the side that lost the second Test by six wickets in New Delhi, bringing in pace-bowling stalwart Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green in place of Pat Cummins and David Warner, who have both returned home.
Australia is being captained by Steve Smith in the match.
IND v AUS, 3rd Test - LIVE
India have already taken a 2-0 lead in the four-Test series to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Rohit Sharma said India are playing to win.
“We will have a bat first. It is a pretty good dressing room and like you said the morale is high. The guys are confident about their skills which is a good thing moving forward. We have played a lot of cricket (here) but this one (surface) is slightly different. Looks little dry and you have to adapt your skills and be at it all the time. We aren’t there yet (WTC final) and we have to come and win this game, we have to try and repeat the things we did in the first two Tests. It is important to stay present. We have made two changes - Gill comes in place of KL. We have rested Shami and Umesh comes in," Rohit said at the toss.
Here is how Twitter reacted to the news of Shubman Gill replaced KL Rahul in the Indian team:
Most happy and awa most sad person after seeing KL Rahul dropped from 3rd test, Venkatesh Prasad pic.twitter.com/q1Y059zYAe— supremo ` (@hyperKohli) March 1, 2023
Kl Rahul Dropped Happiest Person On Earth RN :- #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/wbKdoPtJtP— Aryan (@CrazyHitmanFan) March 1, 2023
Venkatesh Prasad after knowing that KL Rahul was dropped in today’s match pic.twitter.com/ULQSQX8fCs— ಭಲೇ ಬಸವ (@Basavachethanah) March 1, 2023
So KL Rahul is dropped from the XI. @venkateshprasad now. #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/tuxbDK9rZJ— Akash (@rebelmla10) March 1, 2023
Shubman Gill replaces KL Rahul in 3rd test….Venkatesh Prasad & Memers : pic.twitter.com/wbdfZ009SK
— UmdarTamker (@UmdarTamker) March 1, 2023
Shubman Gill selected in 3rd test cricket match inspite of KL Rahul be like ..#INDvAUS #Indoretest #BGT2023 pic.twitter.com/hGjWsWrQzP— Ashutosh Srivastava (@sri_ashutosh08) March 1, 2023
KL Rahul right now #INDvsAUS3rdTEST pic.twitter.com/cYfvpXdf7m— Mohit (@CricketHolik) March 1, 2023
Thank You KL RahulBye Bye#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/YOPxwbc8hb— VECTOR⁴⁵️ (@Vector_45R) March 1, 2023
Thankyou KL Rahul for the (unwanted) memories ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Wc08dPxKm8— आयुषी (@aayushi__09) March 1, 2023
KL Rahul dropped. ICT fans right now: pic.twitter.com/gHiYQCJiBl— Arindam (@arindam830) March 1, 2023
India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith (c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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