Dont change your game because of Test stamp: Ravi Shastri hands Test cap to Suryakumar Yadav

Top-seeded T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav got his much-awaited Test cap on Thursday when Team India started their quest to retain Border-Gavaskar Trophy title for the third time on a trot, with the series opener starting in Nagpur.

Besides Suryakumar Yadav, wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat was also handed the Test cap ahead of the first Test in Nagpur. While Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara handed Test cap to KS Bharat, India’s former head coach Ravi Shastri got the opportunity to hand over Test cap to Suryakumar Yadav.

The video of the same was shared by BCCI where Ravi Shastri was spotted giving words of motivation to the new Mr. 360 by specifically suggesting ‘not to change his style of batting’ just because of the stamp of Test cricket on the cap.

“You have rightly earned this cap. You are not getting it because of anyone else, but because of the way you have played cricket in recent times. Don’t change your style. You play the game, you play it. Enjoy the game and entertain,” Ms. Shastri said.

In another part of the video, Test veteran Cheteshwar Pujara motivated wicket-keeper batter KS Bharat on getting a Test cap ahead of the first Test match. Notably, regular Test wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant met with a horrific car accident on December 30^th, 2022 which has side-lined him from all the on-field action for close to seven to eight months.  

Squad:

Australia (Playing XI):

David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (C), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland

India (Playing XI):

Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Chesteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Md. Shami, Md. Siraj