A significant change in India's squad and batting order is likely to take place ahead of the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, starting from Thursday according to a report published by Times of India.

Captain Rohit Sharma is expected to return to his opening spot, and KL Rahul, who has been Team India’s most consistent batsman so far in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, might be pushed down to middle-order. 

According to the report, Nitish Kumar Reddy might be dropped surprisingly despite the fact that he is also consistent in the ongoing BGT after KL Rahul. Team India is reportedly planning to play two spinners, the other being Ravindra Jadeja, at the MCG. 

The bowling has not been that great, and reinforcing it by adding Washington, who’s a proficient batter, makes sense but not at the cost of losing Nitish, who, in the first Test series, has saved Team India at least twice already.

The report has not specifically mentioned whether Shubman Gill will be dropped or retained in the first eleven as a middle-order batsman. If he is also dropped then someone like Dhruv Jurel or Sarfaraz Khan might be slotted in the middle. Gill’s away record is very ordinary (616 runs in 22 innings at an average of 30.80), and it might not be a shock that he is dropped.