3 things India can identify in the warm-up match against Essex

The white-ball leg of India's long tour of England is over and it's time for some red ball cricket, starting with their lone three-day warm-up game against Essex at Chelmsford, starting from Wednesday.

The selectors picked an 18-member squad last week, comprising of several options for most of the regular players who are expected to make it to the starting XI for the first Test starting in Edgbaston next Wednesday. Ahead of that, the practice match offers the management an opportunity to find the right balance which they could take forward into the game and start off the series on a positive note.

Here are three things which India can identify before the first Test in the warm-up encounter:

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#3 The fast bowling attack

Will Shami get some much-required overs under his belt in the warm-up?

India have picked as many as six fast bowlers on this tour, but have only five to pick from owing to Jasprit Bumrah undergoing a surgery and requiring some more time away from competitive cricket.

That leaves them with picking at least two from Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav. The one constant in each of the three Tests in South Africa was Shami, who did well in patches but came on his own in the fourth innings of the last Test at Johannesburg. He has not played in quite some time owing to fitness issues and so could be tested out in the warm-up game.

Ishant looked good in the one-off Test against Afghanistan and knows the current prevailing conditions better than others thanks to his stint at Sussex this year, so he might start the first Test regardless of the number of overs he bowls in the warm-up.

Hardik Pandya is the interesting one because, in Tests, his contribution has been more with the bat than with the ball. Virat Kohli will want from him in that regard and perhaps, he too like Shami could get an extended bowl in the warm-up.

Umesh must consider himself really unlucky for not having got more chances that he would have liked in Test match cricket, despite having a very good home season in 2016-17. Will he get some overs under his belt remains to be seen.

Shardul Thakur perhaps has the least chance of making the cut into the starting XI but only Kohli, at time, understands his own selections and so he could be thrown into the mix straight away.

The next three days could give a better picture on how the fast bowling could look like in the first Test at Edgbaston.

#2 The spin bowling unit

Who among these two will get the nod if Kuldeep starts?

There has been a lot of talk floating around the inclusion of Kuldeep Yadav in the starting XI thanks to his prowess with the white ball and how he has managed to fox the English batsmen.

Picking Kuldeep would mean only going in with either with Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja as the other spinner. You would assume that only if the pitch were to be an absolute rank turner, then India would include all three in the line-up, but it is unlikely that they would get that.

That decision could actually rely upon who offers more in their secondary role, in which case the former could hold the upper hand as he could be a better bet as a batsman as compared to the latter. A good indicator of that could be the number of overs that both bowl in the warm-up game and based upon that, the call on who the second spinner to partner Kuldeep should be could be taken.

#1 The opening conundrum

Who will get more game time in the warm-up game between these two?

Purely from a technical perspective, one would assume that India would select Murali Vijay as the first-choice opener. The decision that needs to be taken is who between Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul partners him.

In the one-off Afghanistan Test, India played all three with Rahul coming at 3 but was possible since Virat Kohli was not playing. Now Kohli is back in the mix and it will be very interesting to see who makes the cut with Vijay as the opening pair for the warm-up game.