New Delhi: To wipe out the deficit of their opening Test loss, India need to get their team combination right in the second game against England and then hope it clicks at Edgbaston from Wednesday.
A blunt attack apart from Jasprit Bumrah coupled with butter fingers of the fielders prevented India from defending a substantial 371-run target at Headingley.
The seam bowling supporting act of Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur for Bumrah were hardly penetrative while Ravindra Jadeja’s spin was largely ineffectual.
It has led to calls for the inclusion left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav on a track that could offer some assistance for slow bowlers while all-rounder Nitish Reddy could get picked in place of Thakur.
Should Bumrah be rested to manage his workload, the seamers need to improve their performance markedly as without picking 20 wickets they wouldn’t win.
Going in with Jadeja and Thakur proved India put greater emphasis on batting depth over bowling potency that backfired at Headlingley.
Thus Edgbaston would be a chance for course correction with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitting that India are scratching their heads to find the perfect balance between bat and ball.
“In terms of managing the strategy there, we’re looking at each bowler individually, feeling what we feel they can get wickets-wise. And then it’s just trying to balance up and trying to calculate as best you can what the best chance of getting into the Test match,” he said.
“But you need 20 wickets. So the attacking party is obviously finding someone who can get wickets as well. And we are grappling with that. We don’t stop talking about that. We’re trying to figure it out.”
Two spinners
India have admitted to have missed a wicket-taking bowlers in their five-wicket loss in the first game, thus Yadav’s inclusion is all but certain, with the team management dropping enough hints to play with two spinners.
It would put added responsibility on the shoulders of the batters, who were in good knick in the series opener. KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and captain Shubman Gill all scored centuries, yet late order batting collapses gave England a chance to mount comebacks.
England have named an unchanged squad and are likely to go with the same team and produce another clinical batting approach, displaying a polished and matured version of their ultra-aggressive ‘Bazball’.
Squads:
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
India: Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.