India vs Australia: India's most inexperienced bowling attack to take on mighty Aussies at Brisbane

The Indian team management faced an uphill task on Friday morning as they had to choose the playing XI for the fourth and final Test match against Australia in Brisbane.

While the batting department was in good shape, the bowling wardrobe was majorly depleted with all the first choice players out injured. The experienced Ravichandran Ashwin was expected to lead the bowling attack but Indian cricket fans were in for a shocker as even he was missing from the playing XI.

Remember Ashwin had battled on the last day of the Sydney Test to earn a draw for India with the bat, despite having a sore back. That fight put paid to his chances of playing the final Test and India fast bowling talisman Jasprit Bumrah too was unavailable due to injury.

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India thus decided to hand left-arm medium pacer T Natarajan and off-spinner Washington Sundar their maiden Test cap. Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini were retained and Shardul Thakur was added to the playing XI.

This made Siraj, who made his debut in Melbourne, the most experienced bowler in the playing XI with 2 Test matches under his belt followed by Saini who made his Test debut in the last Test.

Thakur had made his Test debut against West Indies in October 2018 at Hyderabad but had hobbled out injured after bowling just 10 deliveries.

So, the total experience of India bowling attack ahead of the match was 3 Test matches and 10 deliveries, by far the most inexperienced bowling attack the team has ever put on the field in recent times.

Left arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav could have added some experience to the bowling attack in Ashwin's absence but the team management decided to go in with Sundar, who was on the tour as a net bowler, due to his batting abilities lower down the order.

India lost Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja to injury during the series, before the duo of Bumrah and Ashwin too were added to the list.

India came to Australia without the services of the experienced duo of Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, both of whom would have made it to the team in the Test matches had they been fit.

Keeping their injury issues in mind and the absence of skipper Virat Kohli, the team has done really well to stay in contention in the series till the last Test match.