Teenage prodigy Prithvi Shaw is set to open alongside KL Rahul in the first Test against the West Indies after India on Wednesday started the practice of naming their final 12 before the start of every game.
Three specialist spinners — Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav — have been picked and the pace pairing will be of Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav.
It will be a dream come true for Shaw when he walks out to bat here. The 18-year-old's India debut will hardly be a surprise to those who felt the supremely talented bastman was destined to play for the country ever since he started scoring bagful of runs in school cricket in Mumbai.
There was an intense debate on the opening combination going into the first Test since India had dropped Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan for young blood. The picture on whether Shaw or Agarwal will open alongside Rahul only became clear after Kohli's pre-match press conference here.