Rohit Sharma and Navdeep Saini have been confirmed to start in India’s third Test encounter with Australia in Sydney on Thursday.

Sharma will make his long-awaited return to international cricket after being sidelined for some time due to injury. The opener will replace Mayank Agarwal at the top of the order.

Saini, however, will make his Test debut for India in place of the injured Umesh Yadav. The left-armer pulled up with a calf injury during the second innings of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

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Yadav has subsequently been ruled out for the remainder of the series, with Saini edging Shardul Thakur to a starting birth.

India will go into the clash on the back of a highly impressive performance in Melbourne, where they claimed an eight-wicket victory over the Australians.

The home side have, however, been boosted by the return of David Warner, who will open the batting in place of Joe Burns.

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravi Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Jasprit Bumrah.