Ajit Agarkar picks India's playing XI for the third Test

Team India is all geared up for the third and must-win (or must-not-lose) Test in order to stay alive in the series. The conditions at Trent Bridge are not going to be any different as James Anderson and Co. would be keen to pile on the agony for the batsmen. A lot has been said about the team combination which India should go in with. Even Ajit Agarkar has spilt the beans about the same and believes that it will all depend on the conditions.

The former Indian cricketer is of the opinion that the captain Virat Kohli should continue to stick with the same set of batsmen and not be harsh on them. He felt that the conditions have been too tough to score runs and both the sides are struggling in that aspect. But it will be the visitors who will have to make the move as England are sitting pretty with a 2-0 lead.

What are the changes?

Ajit Agarkar, while speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, picked his playing XI but didn’t deny the possibility of Kohli surprising everyone at the toss which he has been doing for 37 Test matches on the trot. Murali Vijay and KL Rahul will continue to open and Cheteshwar Pujara will bat at number 3 for him as he hoped that they click this time around at least. He also went on to say that Pujara will have to score runs after getting his eye in.

There is no doubt about that Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane will take care of No 4 and 5slotst in the line-up. However, he was of the opinion that Umesh Yadav should play ahead of Jasprit Bumrah who has been declared fit. The Mumbai chief selector was also excited about the raw talent of Rishabh Pant who looks set to make his Test debut on Saturday and felt his inclusion might just bring the freshness to the line-up.

In spite of all the brouhaha around India’s playing XI, it will Kohli and the team management who take the final decision before the toss.

Here’s Ajit Agarkar’s playing XI: Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravi Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami

[interaction id=”5b74071cafc9e451961cb94d”]

Keep following CricTracker for more news and updates.