Team India will face off against Australia in the third of the four-Test series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from Thursday, to defend its Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The side has announced its playing XI, with pacer Navdeep Saini set to make his Test debut, alongside Rohit Sharma, who returns to the frame.
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With the series currently locked at 1-1, India will have a challenging task at hand, as Rohit needs to get India off to a strong start, following the failure by openers, Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal in the opening two Tests. Rohit had missed out of the first two games as he recovered from a hamstring strain, suffered during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
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Rohit's last Test appearance happened in November 2019, while his previous away Test was back in Melbourne, in November 2018. Meanwhile, Rohit has also been re-named as the team vice-captain, while Cheteshwar Pujara handled the role in the last test.
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Also, Saini is making his debut, replacing injured pacer Umesh Yadav, who injured his calf muscle in the previous Test. Saini has played 46 First-Class games, claiming 128 wickets at an average of 28.46, including four four-for and five-for, each.
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Saini is coming off an average outing in Australia's limited-overs campaign, having claimed four wickets in three matches, at an average of 64.75. In IPL 2020, he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and claimed six wickets in 13 games at an economy of 8.29.
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India XI for 3rd Test: Rohit Sharma (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj.
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