London, Aug 11: Captain Virat Kohli might have to seriously consider playing his best spinner Ravichandran Ashwin while expecting a far better show from the seasoned batting line-up when India meet England in the second Test at the Lord’s starting Thursday.
While India were in a better position to win the first Test before heavens opened up on the final day, the first innings score of 278 was still below par as none among Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane (horrible mix-up) scored runs. All three haven’t scored heavily in the past two years.
As far as team combination is concerned, Shardul Thakur’s hamstring injury does again tilt the lower-order batting balance.
As a result, Ashwin, who was dropped from the playing XI in the drawn opening game in Nottingham because of Ravindra Jadeja’s superior skills with the willow, is back in the mix. With Thakur being all but ruled out of the upcoming match, Kohli might have to revisit his 4-1 bowling combination considering the lean nature of his team’s lower-order batting.
It would be interesting to see if England retain a green top. In case, the pitch is on the drier side, there could possibly be no harm in playing both Ashwin and Jadeja, who can trouble the brittle England batting line-up with their variations.
The poor quality of new generation of England Test players was exposed again as skipper Joe Root had to come to his team’s rescue for the umpteenth time with a fifty in the first innings and possibly a match-saving 21st Test hundred in the second essay.
Rory Burns could be replaced by Haseeb Hameed, who scored a hundred for the Combined Counties against India in the tour game last month.
For Kohli, if four pacers are non-negotiable, then one among Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav will be replacing Thakur but the choice might not be that easy.
“For us, it’s about finding that perfect balance but if someone like Shardul is not available, then we definitely need to think how to pick up 20 wickets and not try to plug in another guy, who can give us some runs with the bat. I think we are very comfortable how first Test went,” Kohli said.
If the skipper believes that his batting needs to be suitably beefed up, then Ashwin is the right choice.
India: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (WK), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Md. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav.
England: Joe Root (C), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Dom Bess, Moeen Ali, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Dom Sibley, Mark Wood. (PTI)
Match Starts at 3:30 pm.
