Predicted XIs: If India decides to field separate Test and T20I sides

The amount of economic loss inflicted by the corona pandemic cannot be summarized by words, and cricket is no different. Even the richest of the cricket boards like BCCI, CA, ECB are worried about the loss that they have to bear in the coming days due to no cricketing action in the past 2 months.

To overcome the loss, BCCI have come up with an innovative idea to conduct 2 international matches of different formats in the same day with 2 separate squads. In this way, they can conceal the heavy damage and make up for the lost revenue

Here we take a look at an interesting aspect of predicting the Indian side for 2 different formats if the matches are to take place on the same day.

Test match XI

India have as many as 5 players who can play all the formats of the game and if India are to play two international matches of different formats in the same day then the management have to ration the players according to their significance for each format.

Openers
India have found a new opening combination in Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal in the longer format and its not a good idea to break that combination and hence it only makes sense if they continue to persist with that pair

Middle order
India have solid batting core in the red ball cricket with Chetshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Hanuma Vihari manning the middle order.

Wicket-keeper/All-rounder
One major problem for India in the longer format of the game is whether to play Wriddhiman Saha or Rishabh Pant and they played Pant in the overseas tour of New Zealand whereas Saha played the whole of the home season. Considering the fact that Rishabh Pant has become a second choice keeper in the limited overs format, its only fair if Pant is made the permanent wicket-keeper in red ball cricket.

The all-rounder spot will be filled by Ravindra Jadeja and it’s a no brainer that Ravindra Jadeja will edge out Ravichandran Ashwin for that spot in the overseas tours considering the fact that Ravindra Jadeja comes as a full package, also a slump in Ashwin’s batting form will only help Jadeja.

Gun pace battery
In the recent past, India’s pacers have overshadowed all the other players in the team and India are lucky enough to have groomed 2 test specialists which allows Bumrah to concentrate on the white ball cricket.

Predicted test XI
1. Rohit Sharma
2. Mayank Agarwal
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli(C)
5. Ajinkya Rahane
6. Hanuma Vihari
7. Rishabh Pant(Wk)
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Mohammad Shami
10. Umesh Yadav
11. Ishant Sharma

Reserves
1. Ravichandran Ashwin
2. Navdeep Saini
3. Prithvi Shaw
4. Wriddhiman Saha

T20Is

This is one format where India can make ample experiments as even a full strength Indian squad wouldn’t guarantee a win as the T20I game is a funny format. Hence all the deserving players will get a go in the absence of big guns like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Most of the players pick themselves in this format of the game as India have ample bench strength to make up for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Predicted T20I XI
1. KL Rahul(C)
2. Shikhar Dhawan
3. Manish Pandey
4. Shreyas Iyer
5. Dinesh Karthik (Wk)
6. Hardik Pandya
7. Krunal Pandya
8. Deepak Chahar
9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
10. Yuzvendra Chahal
11. Jasprit Bumrah

Reserves
1. Kuldeep Yadav
2. Sanju Samson
3. Shardul Thakur
4. Washington Sundar

It is made clear that if India are to play 2 international games on the same day then in all probability it would be a T20I and a Test match game so that the broadcasters can show test during day and T20I during night.