3 Selection dilemmas for Team India ahead of the World Test Championship final

1. The Openers Dilemma

The final dilemma that India will be confronted is the ‘openers dilemma’. While Rohit Sharma is likely to start in the playing XI, India has a number of players who can partner with the ‘Hitman’ at the top of the order.

The Virat Kohli-led side can go in with Shubman Gill, who impressed in his debut series in Australia and scored 259 runs at an average of 51.80. They can even choose to give Prithvi Shaw another chance after his scintillating performance in the 2021 IPL edition and the Vijay Hazare trophy.

Shaw scored 308 runs at an average of 38.50 and a whopping strike rate of 166.49 in the 14th edition of the IPL. Even in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shaw was mighty impressive and scored a whopping 827 runs at an average of 165.40. India can even provide a chance to KL Rahul. The last time Rahul played a Test match in England, he scored 149 off 224 deliveries in September 2018.

India can even try out Mayank Agarwal at the top of the order as well. In the 21 innings that Agarwal has opened for India in Tests, he has scored 1005 runs at an average of 47.86. He has also scored 3 hundreds and 4 fifties opening the batting for India in the whites.

So, will it be Gill, Shaw, KL Rahul, or Mayank Agarwal? Well, one thing is certain. Kohli will surely have a few sleepless nights in deciding the final playing XI that will take the field against New Zealand in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.