By Amlan Chakraborty
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Australia brought back Travis Head and picked debutant Matt Kuhnemann as their third spinner in a bold selection gamble for the second test against India on Friday.
Head replaced fellow batter Matt Renshaw while paceman Scott Boland made way for Queenslander Kuhnemann, who had played 13 first-class matches before his shock selection.
India won the opening test in Nagpur inside three days to take a 1-0 lead in the four-test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“We’ve all lost games before and had to bounce back, and that’s the challenge for the team this week,” Cummins said after winning the toss and electing to bat at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
All-rounder Cameron Green and quick Mitchell Starc failed to recover from finger injuries in time to return to the squad.
“Neither are in there, so we’ve got Travis Head coming back in for Renshaw and Matt Kuhnemann making his debut for Scotty Boland,” said Cummins, the lone fast bowler in their playing 11.
India brought in fit-again Shreyas Iyer for Suryakumar Yadav.
“When you are playing in India it’s important that you don’t worry about the toss factor, just come out and play good cricket,” home captain Rohit Sharma said.
He also paid tribute to top order colleague Cheteshwar Pujara, who is playing his 100th test.
“He’s gone through a lot of ups and downs throughout his career but he’s stuck to his plans and what he wants to do and he’s come a long way,” Rohit said.
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat (wicketkeeper), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Todd Murphy, Nathan Lyon, Matt Kuhnemann
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford)
