Australia vs India Test series: 3 players who can be match-winners for India

The much awaited India vs Australia Test series is about to begin from today, i.e. 6 December, at the Adelaide Oval. The Indian team will be looking to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which they won at home after beating Australia by a 2-1 margin in 2016-17.

India are going into the series with a very strong and balanced 18-member squad. They seem to have the perfect mix of youth and experience in all the departments.

The Indian Test team announced for the tour is as follows:

Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

On paper, the Indian squad looks much stronger than its Australian counterpart. The Aussies, led by Tim Paine, will be fielding one of their weakest Test sides in recent times, with star players like Steve Smith and David Warner missing out.

That is why many experts feel that this is the best chance for India to win a Test series in Australia. However, India cannot afford to take the Aussies lightly in their own backyard. They have to play their best cricket in order to win the series.

The Indian team got a big blow ahead of the first Test match, when young opener Prithvi Shaw injured himself in the practice match and thus got ruled out for at least two Tests.

Both India and Australia have already announced their 12-member squad for the first Test. India are going into the match with six specialist batsmen and four bowlers. The players missing out are Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the injured Prithvi Shaw.

In this article we take a look at the three players who can be match winners for India in the first Test, and also in the series.

3. Ishant Sharma

Ishant Sharma is the most experienced bowler in the Indian pace attack. Although the Indian team has a very good pace battery with the likes of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah also in the squad, Ishant's form will be the most important factor as he can lead the attack if he is in good form.

His previous experience of playing in Australian conditions coupled with his present form will make him confident of doing well in this series.

In the recently concluded tour of England, Ishant was at his very best. If he can keep up his momentum and rhythm in Australia, then he will surely pick up a lot of wickets and be a match-winner for his team.

2. KL Rahul

KL Rahul

KL Rahul has not been a regular in the Test team, so the upcoming series against Australia is a golden opportunity for him to show his class and cement his place.

Rahul's biggest problem in his career so far has been his inconsistency. Every once in a while he plays a memorable innings, as he did during the last Test in England, but he usually can't keep up his good form for more than a couple of matches.

What he needs to master is how to score runs consistently. If Rahul gets going, then he can score as quickly as anybody in the world.

He has the unique ability to score quickly as well as bat for long periods, and both of those things could greatly help India on this tour.

1. Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli

Arguably one of the greatest batsman of all time, and the best of his generation, Virat Kohli has come a long way as a Test cricketer over the last few years. After his exceptional English tour with the bat, where he was the highest run scorer by a distance, Kohli would look to replicate his performance in Australia too.

He has been scoring big hundreds and double hundreds in recent Test matches with ease, specially after becoming the captain of the side. On this Australian tour, Kohli will again be the backbone of the Indian batting and the most important match-winner for the team.