Birmingham: There was fevered anticipation around India’s nets session at Edgbaston on Monday morning. Those at the ground took their positions well in advance, with their eyes trained on India’s premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah. The attention, however, soon wavered to left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav. It was Kuldeep who juggled new and semi-new balls in the third net for the first half-an-hour. Bumrah, meanwhile, was engrossed in an intense discussion with head coach Gautam Gambhir before retiring to the dressing room without bowling a ball.
Bumrah only returned to go through the paces 45 minutes before India wrapped up their practice for the day. Soon after the nets, India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate announced that the team was more or less set to play two spinners in the second Test against England.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Kuldeep has had an on-off run in Test cricket since he made his debut against Australia in 2017. He has now played under four different head coaches and none of them have given him a long run in Tests, irrespective of his match-defining performances in a majority of the 13 Tests that he has featured in, taking 56 wickets at 22.16.
If India are now looking for an opportunity to establish Kuldeep as the lead spinner in overseas conditions, the dry Edgbaston pitch here, which has been baking under the harsh sun for most of the week, is closest to ideal conditions. The only thing which goes against Kuldeep is his inferior batting ability down the order, a factor which resulted in Washington Sundar playing ahead of him against New Zealand on some raging turners last Oct. This was in spite of Kuldeep holding fort with the bat and helping India win a Test against England in Ranchi.
The same theory is still in play here. While Doeschate did confirm that India are looking to play two spinners here, he slipped in Washington’s name in the discussion. There was an obvious spring in Washington’s stride after practice.
“Everything is about juggling batting depth. All three spinners are bowling very nicely. Washington is batting very nicely. It’s about if we go with an allrounder-spinner or the out-and-out spinner,” Doeschate said.
Meanwhile, Bumrah’s chances of playing this Test are negligible, owing to the intensive workload management programme in place. The team management feels Bumrah has enough time to make a difference in the five-Test series even if it decided to rest him for the second Test. Doeschate mentioned that although the pitch wore an 11 mm layering of grass on Monday morning, it was very dry underneath. He also pointed at the forecast, which predicts rain deep into the Test, which could dictate the eventual playing XI.
This management under Gambhir has been largely about increasing batting depth. Now, it is torn between adding strength to the fragile lower middle-order and retaining a four-seamer attack. Nitish Kumar Reddy going through a long batting stint in the nets and an extensive slip-catching session suggested that he too is in contention, as Doeschate corroborated in the media briefing.
The real question that the team management and captain Shubman Gill need to answer is whether they have a wicket-taking, alternative bowling option in Bumrah’s absence. India’s first-choice pacers in Headingley — Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna — had an ordinary outing. Akash Deep bowled a long spell in the nets in tandem with the duo. If these three pacers happen to be the frontline options, Kuldeep could be the biggest X-factor.
Kuldeep has upset the aggressive English batters on pretty flat pitches in India early last year. He proved the decisive factor besides Bumrah, and practicing hard with the new ball could suggest India are expecting to bring him into play if the attacking English opening duo of Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley get going.
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