India vs. Australia 3rd Test: Visitors Drop Key Player From Playing XI, Rohit Returns

Rohit Sharma was included for the third Test against Australia when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced their playing XI Wednesday. He replaced struggling Mayank Agarwal in the opening department of Team India for the New Year's Test, set to begin Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

Navdeep Saini, 28, was named in the playing XI and will make his Test debut in the Sydney game. He has played for India 17 times previously – 7 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 10 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). In the ongoing Down Under tour of India, Saini played two ODIs, where he managed to get only one wicket.

The rest of the squad will remain the same for Team India.

Rohit will open with 22-year-old Shubman Gill, who made his Test debut in the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) last month, which India won by eight wickets. Gill had a decent first outing in the whites as he had returned with scores of 45 and an unbeaten 35. Rohit will replace Mayank, who scored 17, 9, and 0, 5 in his last four innings.

Earlier, Rohit missed the limited-overs leg and the first two Tests due to a hamstring injury he had sustained during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. He recovered from the issue at Bengaluru's National Cricket Academy (NCA) and was in quarantine for 14 days after arriving in Australia.

As soon as Rohit joined the Indian squad in Melbourne, he began to train. The Mumbai cricketer reportedly looked good in nets and was timing well against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Saini.

The four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy is currently leveled at 1-1. The Aussies triumphed in the day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval. Following that, India's captain Virat Kohli returned home on paternity leave and in his absence, his deputy Ajinkya Rahane was leading Team India. Rahane led from the front in Melbourne, with a crucial knock of 112, as the touring party thrashed Australia by eight wickets within four days to claim the Boxing Day Test.

India's Playing XI for the third Test

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Akinkya Rahane(c), Hanuma Vihrai, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini.