5 areas India need to address in their upcoming Test assigments

The Indian Test side is all set to begin a new journey without MS Dhoni. The man who led for almost 7 years in this format will no longer be playing Test Cricket and thus we have now officially entered ‘the Virat Kohli era’. The new skipper has already stated his ambition to win as many Test matches as possible, but it is not going to be that easy even though they will only be playing Tests at the sub-continent for a while. There are some issues to be addressed ahead of the series against Sri Lanka away and South Africa at home apart from this one-off Test against Bangladesh. Here are they:

Vijay’s opening partner

Lokesh Rahul scored a hundred in the final Test in Australia

With Shikhar Dhawan not having a good time with the bat in England and Australia in Test Cricket, the team had to look beyond him. And once they did, they found KL Rahul who went on to impress everyone with his hundred in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia.

This would have settled the debate for now but unfortunately, the Karnataka batsman has not recovered from his illness which has forced him to miss the Bangladesh Test. With no reserve opener in the squad, the team management will likely be preferring Dhawan again to pair up with Vijay. If Dhawan scores well, this would once again open the debate regarding the second opener’s slot.

The selectors have to sit down and take a crucial decision before the team flies to Sri Lanka. If they are looking for stability, KL Rahul should get his spot back, but if they feel the need to have a left handed aggressive opener at top of the order, then Dhawan should continue as if he would be at ease in these conditions.

Handling Pujara

Pujara was dropped for the final Test against Australia

India needs Pujara in Test Cricket. It is as simple as that. And in order to get the best out of him, they need to play him at number 3 again. The man who is being hailed as the next wall failed to show up in England as well as in Australia.

At one point of time, the team management lost faith in him and went on to drop him for the final Test. Instead, they had Rohit Sharma batting in that position on a temporary basis. But this isn’t a long term solution. He is back on surfaces where he has literally batted the oppositon out of the game. And also his Yorkshire stint would have done his confidence a world of good.

So how India will be handling him needs to be seen as an in-form Pujara at number 3 can win you matches.

Can Saha emulate Dhoni?

Saha has big shoes to fill

Wriddhiman Saha will probably be playing Test Cricket for the first time with a hint of pressure. He has played four Test matches so far for India and everytime he got a chance to play, he would go out there knowing that how good he performs, Dhoni would return to take his spot.

But things are different now. He has been trusted by the team management to take over the wicket-keeping duties on a long term. But with a host of young keepers waiting for an opportunity, he knows he cannot afford to slip. He needs the backing from his skipper for now as he needs time to gel in to this side.

He also has to keep delivering with the bat and learn the art of batting with the tail like Dhoni did. Afterall, its not going to be easy to replace someone who almost averaged 40 in Tests batting at number 7 on most occasions.

Second spinner

Harbhajan? Karn? Or someone else?

This is going to be a huge challenge indeed! You have to play two spinners in the subcontinent without a doubt. But who is going to be the one to pair up with Ashwin as the second spinner? Harbhajan Singh is back in the squad after two years, but can he nail his spot down?

His Ranji numbers in the last two years aren’t that great, but he brings experience with him. Having picked 400 plus Test wickets, he knows how to bowl in these conditions. But what if he fails? Should the management be trying Karn Sharma in that case? Or how about someone like Chahal or Akshar Patel who have been doing well in the IPL?

Plenty of questions to answer on this front. For now, it depends on Bhajji’s form. If he bowls well, the management is likely to persist with him.

Team combination

India has always preferred to play with 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers in the subcontinent. But at times when the pitch is as flat as a pancake, four bowlers might just not be enough especially in humid subcontinental conditions.

This is where Kohli’s captaincy comes into the equation. He is been seen as someone who is going to be aggressive in his captaincy tenure. So, will he take the bold step to play 5 specialist bowlers and 6 batsmen? Dhoni did it when he had the luxury of having someone like Jadeja to bat at number 7. But the left-arm spinner has been dropped due to his poor form.

In that case, can Kohli place his trust on someone like Ashwin (who has two Test hundreds to his name)? Bhajji has two hundreds in this format as well, so he is well equipped to bat at number 8 and the likes of Karn Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are more than handy with the bat.

It will also depend on the bowlers that he will be choosing in his playing XI. If he goes for three seamers and two spinners, then his batting lineup will become thinner, but if he opts for the third spinner, he can relax a bit knowing that his spinners can bat decently especially in these conditions.

Overall, it promises to be an exciting period for Indian Cricket, and their success in the Test format over the next few months will largely depend on these 5 factors.