Image Credit- AP
Following a defeat to begin the series, India lost one
of their major match-winners at home and their top batter from the Hyderabad
Test due to injury. Due to the withdrawal of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja from
the second Test in Visakhapatnam, which begins on Friday, India will have some
difficulty balancing their playing eleven, beginning with…
The number 4 question
Very likely Shreyas Iyer. In the second innings, he
did not exactly shine, but then again, neither did any of the Indian hitters.
The strain of potentially losing seemed to get to them, and the aggression they
displayed in the first innings, when they were throwing England spinners for a
loop, disappeared. Iyer is the best option available to India at the moment.
They will need someone in the top four who can accomplish it. Because the
experience that India has in their batting lineup has completely collapsed
after Rohit Sharma at the top.
Jadeja’s deputy?
Leader Kuldeep Yadav is in the lead. In his eight
Tests, he has three five-fors. He has been playing excellent limited-overs
cricket, exhibiting precision, a quality that is crucial in the lengthier
format. Even in Hyderabad, that combined with the extra dimension of his
wristspin made him a very alluring alternative; however, India chose Axar Patel
instead, wanting the depth in their batting lineup. Now that Jadeja is gone,
they are obliged to play.
In addition, India has called up two more spinners:
Washington Sundar, a respectable left-hand batsman who comes in handy when
facing an opposition team that features two left-arm spinners, one of whom
recently made history, and Saurabh Kumar, a seasoned domestic cricketer who is
a constant in the India A squad.
Jadeja is one of their greatest bowlers and one of
their best hitters from the recent past, so replacing him will be difficult.
India will have consistency in one area with Kuldeep and Saurabh, if they can
be relied upon to bowl a lot of overs, but not in the other. It’s the opposite
way around in Washington. In Test cricket, he has nearly as many fifty-score
innings as wickets.
Rajat Patidar or Sarfaraz
Given that he was already in the team as Virat Kohli’s
replacement, Patidar would be the clear favourite, but is Sarfaraz also a lock
for the starting XI? India has to add more batting depth, and those two have
been off the roster for some time.
Patidar is renowned for his attitude in important
games. Additionally, Sarfaraz has a tendency to score a lot of runs rapidly. He
was scheduled to play for Mumbai in the current Ranji Trophy in Bengaluru, but
he is now one step closer to making his much anticipated international debut.
In Visakhapatnam, one of them is practically guaranteed to make the XI, but if
India choose to go with Kuldeep instead of Jadeja, they may decide to go with
Patidar and Sarfaraz as well to support the batting.
Playing both of them, though, will mean India have to
drop the fifth bowler and go with a four-man attack. Mohammed Siraj bowled only
four of the 64.3 overs in the first innings and seven of 102.1 in the second,
so will India borrow from England’s playbook and pick just the one fast bowler?