With the first test of the high-profile Border Gavaskar Trophy beginning on November 22, India has announced their playing 11 where Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy will be making their test debut.
Nitish Reddy received his cap from Virat Kohli while Ravichandran Ashwin presented to Harshit Rana.
The all-rounder who made his T20I debut during the T20I against Bangladesh on October 06 earned his test debut on Friday at Optus Stadium.
🚨 Toss & Team News from Perth 🚨
Jasprit Bumrah has won the toss & #TeamIndia have elected to bat in the first Test.
Nitish Kumar Reddy & Harshit Rana make their Test debuts 🧢🧢 for India.
A look at our Playing XI 🔽
Live ▶️ https://t.co/gTqS3UPruo#AUSvIND |… pic.twitter.com/HVAgGAn8OZ
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 22, 2024
Reddy was part of the India A side for the four day match against the Australia A team and is well acclimatized to the conditions. He has played 21 FC matches so far since making his Ranji Trophy debut in 2020.
He has scored 708 runs in 35 innings, including a hundred and two fifties, he has taken 55 wickets.
Meanwhile, Harshit Rana who made IPL debut before making his FC debut for Delhi, was one of the key performer of KKR in the 2024 season where the side won the title for third time. He picked 19 wickets in the tournament.
Rana has played 10 FC matches so far, picking 43 wickets at an average of 24.00 with a returns of 7/45.
On the other hand, Jasprit Bumrah will be leading the side in the absence of Rohit Sharma who previously mentioned that he would likely miss the first test.
India won the toss and opted to bat where KL Rahul will be opening along with Yashasvi Jaiswal while Abhimanyu Easwaran has been benched as he was one of the contender to replace Rohit Sharma.
India Playing 11: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Mohammed Siraj
Australia Playing 11: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
