The big question – will Jasprit Bumrah play at Edgbaston, a venue where India haven’t won a Test yet over eight outings (they lost seven)? The answer, as things stand, is unlikely. The great fast bowler’s workload management is a key factor during the ongoing England versus India series, and India head coach Gautam Gambhir has confirmed that irrespective of the results, Bumrah will not play more than three Tests.
India lost an unlosable Test at Headingley, where even with Bumrah they couldn’t defend 371 in the fourth innings. Without their fast-bowling royalty, the degree of difficulty sharply increases for the tourists. During India’s first training session in Birmingham on Friday, Bumrah, along with Prasidh Krishna, didn’t take part in any on-field activity. A day after, however, he went full tilt at the nets, bowling for around half-an-hour. Prasidh, too, had a decent session on Saturday.
The majority of the batting stars, though, didn’t turn up on Saturday. Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul opted to cool their heels. But Sai Sudharsan, who made his Test debut at Headingley, trained in earnest. In fact, he was the first player to enter the nets. Batting at No. 3, Sai was a bundle of nerves in the first innings of the first Test, getting out for a four-ball duck. In the second dig, he was getting into the groove before falling prey to a soft dismissal. The youngster, however, is expected to be given time by the team management to settle at No. 3.
Another issue is whether India should continue with Karun Nair at No. 6 or replace him with Washington Sundar, or Nitish Kumar Reddy. The former returned to the international fold after a gap of eight years on the back of a mountain of runs in domestic cricket last season. But Test cricket is a different ball game and he didn’t look convincing. England are likely to play on flat pitches that suit their Bazball style, and Washington’s inclusion comes with the added benefit of his tight off-spin bowling, apart from his resolute batting in the middle order. Reddy, too, is a good batting option besides his seam-up stuff.
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India made a selection blunder at Headingley by not playing Kuldeep Yadav and his absence was felt, especially on Day 5, when Ben Duckett was ruling the roost. “Of course, he (Kuldeep) should play,” Dilip Vengsarkar, the former India captain who also served as the chief selector, told RevSportz a couple of days ago. Shardul Thakur was preferred over Kuldeep for the first Test mainly for his batting, and it was a defensive selection. The 33-year-old seam-bowling-allrounder proved to be a let-down and hopefully India will do the course correction at Edgbaston. Kuldeep is the team’s second-best wicket-taking option after Bumrah.
Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh, too, are in contention for a playing XI berth in the second Test that starts on July 2. And over two days of training, one interesting aspect was how tailenders have been having some serious batting time at the nets. At Headingley, India collapsed from 430/3 to 471 all out in their first innings. In the second innings, they lost their last six wickets for 31 runs.
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