Why Suryakumar Yadav is not playing today

Team India have gone into the second Test against Australia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi without Suryakumar Yadav. The 32-year-old made his Test debut in Nagpur in the first contest of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

Suryakumar did not have a memorable Test debut. He was bowled for eight by Nathan Lyon as he looked to go for an expansive drive. The right-handed batter was handed a Test debut after Shreyas Iyer hadn’t recovered from a back injury. With the latter fit for the second Test, he reclaimed his place in the playing XI.

Shreyas’ return was the only change in the Indian playing XI for the second Test against Australia in Delhi. While Suryakumar was dropped, vice-captain KL Rahul retained his place ahead of Shubman Gill despite another low score in the opening match of the series.

India lost the toss and are bowling first in the second Test. Speaking after the toss, skipper Rohit Sharma commented:

“We'd have batted first as well. The pitch is dry, but I think the application we showed last game put the toss away from the game. You just have to come out and play good cricket, and that's been the chat in the group to not worry about the toss.”

The Delhi Test is special for Cheteshwar Pujara as he is featuring in his 100th match for India in the red-ball format.

---

India vs Australia 2nd Test playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat (w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.

Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (w), Pat Cummins (c), Todd Murphy, Nathan Lyon, Matthew Kuhnemann.

---

Rahul Dravid had hinted that Suryakumar Yadav could be dropped for 2nd Test

At the pre-match press conference, Team India head coach Rahul Dravid made it clear that Shreyas would walk back into the playing XI for the Delhi Test if he was declared fit. Asked about the chances of Shreyas’ comeback, without naming Suryakumar, Dravid admitted:

“If he is fit and ready to go and take the load of five days of a Test match, then without a doubt with his past performances, he will walk straight into the XI.”

Praising the 28-year-old, he had added:

“His temperament has really stood out. We've been in quite a few pressure situations with Shreyas around, right from his debut game in Kanpur. In the last year and a half, he, [Ravindra] Jadeja and Rishabh [Pant] have been the ones bailing us out of those tough situations by playing those critical knocks.”

Before the Delhi game, Shreyas played seven Tests, scoring 624 runs at an average of 56.72.