Case for 3 spinners? India declare team for 1st T20I vs AUS

The Indian team management has announced the 12-member team for the first T20I against Australia which will be played on November 21. The team includes both Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant while in the bowling department India might operate with three spinners.

India opt for a strong batting line-up 

Taking into consideration the quality of Australian bowling attack, the team management has decided to opt for a full-strength batting order.

The top-order trio of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli will form the core of the batting line-up while question looms over the number four position as India have selected KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant in the 12-member squad. All three will feature in the playing XI but their order of batting might be tweaked based on the match situation.

The presence of Krunal Pandya at number seven propels the batting depth.

We've announced our 12 for the 1st T20I against Australia at The Gabba #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/c6boLtieGf

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 20, 2018

India confident about Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar

The pace bowling department will be spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar while youngster Khaleel Ahmed is in the 12-member squad as well.

The Indian skipper Virat Kohli said in the press conference that Bhuvi, Bumrah both are good and have the ability to predict what is going to happen on each ball.

He accepted that they do get dominated by the batsmen sometimes like everyone does. But he noted that 85 to 90 percent, they are correct.

King ? Kohli ready and raring to go ?????#TeamIndia #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/XbE3tXzwPq

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 20, 2018

A case for three spinners?

Interestingly, the team includes three spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav who have been handling India’s spin department in recent times are in the team plus there is the option of Krunal’s left-arm spin.

Also read: Shastri admits the team will miss this player in AUS

This means that if India play Chahal and Kuldeep then Kohli will have three spin options. The other probability is for three seamers which means including Khaleel in the playing XI but for this Kohli might have to drop one of his two front-line spinners.