It’s Bumrah who walks out for the toss alongside Cummins.
Bumrah wins the toss and he elects to bat first on a grassy pitch under overcast conditions. Bold call. He says “our captain has opted to rest”. Have we seen the last of Rohit in Test cricket? He will be 38 by the time India’s next WTC cycle begins.
Prasidh Krishna, meanwhile, gets a game in place of the injured Akash Deep. This is Prasidh’s first Test since the Cape Town Test in January 2024. “Our captain has shown leadership by opting to rest in this game,” Bumrah adds. “That shows there’s a lot of unity in this team.”
Rahul has been listed to open alongside Jaiswal. Gill at No.3.
Australia: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Sam Konstas, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Beau Webster, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Scott Boland
India: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Jasprit Bumrah (capt), 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Prasidh Krishna
