India vs England: Team India works to get house in order ahead of Lord's Test

LONDON: Quite a few pictures at the Lord’s museum have changed - it's India time and the organizers want to make the visitors feel "at home". A corner has been set up which only has items from Indian players on display, to be opened from Wednesday. Tickets are hard to come by. Saturday and Sunday are apparently housefull and the "can you get me a ticket for the weekend" request makes you feel whether you are really so far away from India. "Yes, it's India and there's so much interest around this team, so we have to want to add a bit of India flavour to everything," the attendant at the museum told TOI.ALSO READ: In the nets, skipper Virat Kohli sets batting template But that's just the organizational part. When it comes to the game in the middle, no favours can be expected from the English management. The pitch has a tinge of grass which should help the home seamers, and on Tuesday, for the first time in a while, there was a hint of cloud over London.BUMRAH WON'T PLAYNot that the Indian team is unduly worried. Yes, they have a few batting issues after the debacle at Edgbaston but there's a serious effort to get the house in order. However, the one reinforcement the management was hoping for, in the form of Jasprit Bumrah, won't materialise. The paceman is "bowling fit" but there's still a cast on his left hand which suggests he is not in a position to use that in a game situation. "He has been bowling in the nets but he will not be available for this Test," bowling coach Bharat Arun said.It means that the pace trio of Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami will retain their spots, with Hardik Pandya providing the back-up option. The English media contingent is extremely curious to know whether India will go for a second spinner in this Test. They were surprised when Virat Kohli chose not to include Kuldeep Yadav as back-up for R Ashwin at Edgbaston and on Tuesday, they again asked if the English batsmen will have to deal with either the chinaman or Ravindra Jadeja." It's a good choice to have and a tough one too. Depending on the conditions, we'll take a call on that," Arun said. But it will be a surprise if India add an extra spinner on a track which is not traditionally spinner friendly.'DISCUSSION' ABOUT PUJARAThere's another piece of the puzzle that needs to be sorted, the most complicated one. Kohli sprang a surprise by dropping Cheteshwar Pujara in favour of Shikhar Dhawan in the first Test. It didn't go too well for Dhawan at Edgbaston and apparently there is "discussion in the team management" about Pujara. Both Pujara and Dhawan had long sessions in the nets on Tuesday and neither looked comfortable. Coach Ravi Shastri spent quite a while with Pujara as he tried to come to terms with the Indian pacers Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and a couple of other practice bowlers, which included one Arjun Tendulkar.Dhawan, on the other hand, tried his best to leave as many deliveries as possible outside the off-stump, but he didn't look terribly comfortable in whatever he did. But Arun made it clear that both wouldn't be playing. "Playing an extra batsman here would be a conservative move. Everything depends on the conditions and if those are not going to be as friendly as it was in the first Test, it makes more sense to play five bowlers," Arun said, indicating the mindset of the Indian team going into a must-win Test.