After winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, India secured their place in the World Test Championship final. The final will be held at The Oval this coming June. Hence the conditions of competition are very different. Playing at the Oval, which favors pace rather than sub-continental pitches, India’s Dinesh Karthik hinted at some of the changes India need to make in their Test team. Dinesh Karthik says that India should be ready to replace Akshar Patel with Shardul Thakur in the final.
“If Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are fully fit, India will have to replace Akshar Patel in the match. Shardul Thakur also plays for India in his place. And to be honest, it was a big mistake for India to play two spinners in the final last time. They did not bowl much in the match. The final is just a competition. So we need to find the right team.” says Dinesh Karthik.
Along with this, Dinesh Karthik also says that Jadeja and Ashwin are unlikely to play together in the Indian team. “The question before the competition is what is the best line-up to win the competition? If there is a situation where one of Jadeja and Ashwin has to be dropped from the team, then it has to be done,” added Karthik.
In India’s Test series against Australia, Akshar did not shine in bowling but showed excellent performance in batting. Akshar Patel scored 264 runs in the series. But Akshar managed to take only three wickets in the series.