The India-West Indies test series just days away and both the teams are sweating it out to emerge victorious. The Indian team under their new coach Anil Kumble go into the series as favourites and will look to dominate the hosts throughout the series.
What will be the Indian XI for the series against Windies? Will KL Rahul get a chance? Even before the start of the series, skipper Virat Kohli has few important decisions to make regarding the playing XI.
Apart from Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Murali Vijay, there is more than one name fighting out for the remaining spots. Let us take a look at some areas of concerns for Kohli in picking the team.
Team combination:
Picking the right combination will ease the pressure on Virat Kohli ahead of the first test.
In the past, Kohli has expressed his desire to go in with five bowlers as India were struggling to pick the 20 wickets to win a test. In the last test series India played, Kohli went in with just 4 bowlers.
It will be interesting to see the combination which Kohli prefers to go in with. If he decides to go in with 4 bowlers, then Rohit Sharma will get the nod at no.6 and if the skipper sticks to his favourite 6-5 combination, then Rohit will be the one who will be sitting out to accommodate an extra bowler.
Will it be 7-4 or 6-5? With the pitches in West Indies are on the slower side, it won’t be a surprise if Kohli prefers to go in with 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers.
Second opener:
The selectors have chosen three front-line openers for the series against West Indies. Murali Vijay has been India’s best test batsman in the past two years and is certain to open the innings for India in the test series.
Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul will be competing for the second opener’s slot. Dhawan has been partnering Vijay for a while, but the southpaw from Delhi has been inconsistent in the longer format. Dhawan scored a fifty in the first warm-up match against WICB board president’s XI and failed to reach the double digits in the second match.
On the other hand, KL Rahul showed some promise by scoring two centuries in the five test matches he played in his career. Rahul scored heavily in the IPL and carried his form to Zimbabwe, where he became the first Indian batsman to score a 100 on his ODI debut. In the first two warm-up matches, Rahul scored 2 fifties and made his case stronger for selection.
It will be interesting to see who walks out with Vijay to open the India in the first test at Antigua. Will Virat Kohli give Dhawan one last chance in this series? Or will he go with the current form and ask Rahul to open?
Number 3:
Number 3 is the most important position in a batting line-up. Rahul Dravid was taking care of the duty for over a decade and after his retirement, he passed on the baton to Cheteshwar Pujara. Pujara was performing consistently before he went through a slump.
He was dropped from the team and Rohit Sharma was asked to bat at no. 3. Rohit’s record at no. 3 looked ordinary and the team management decided to go in with Pujara at no. 3 for the series against South Africa.
Will Pujara continue to bat at no. 3? Or will Kohli go in with Rohit Sharma ahead of Pujara? Amid all these things, there is one more name that pops out to compete against both Rohit and Pujara for no.3 slot.
If the team management decides to go in with Dhawan as an opener, Rahul’s name might be considered for the no.3 slot. As mentioned in the previous slide, Rahul has done exceedingly well in the recent past and has scored a fifty in one of the warm-up matches coming in at no.3.
Bowling combination:
As discussed in the previous slide, Virat Kohli has to take a call on India’s team combination. If Kohli decides to go in with a 7-4 combination, then it is certain that there will two pacers and two spinners in the line-up.
If Kohli decides to go in with a 6-5 combination, he will have more headaches on the type of bowlers he wants. Will it be 2 pacers and 3 spinners or 3 pacers and 2 spinners?
The tracks in the Caribbean have become slow and with the performances of the Indian spinners in both the warm-up matches, it won’t be a surprise if Kohli decides to go in with 3 spinners if it’s a 6-5 combination.
Problem of plenty in India’s bowling
As of now, only R Ashwin and Ishant Sharma are the ones who are certain to be in the playing XI for the first match. Who will complete the Indian bowling attack?
Among the pacers, skipper Kohli has quite a few options to choose from. In the past, Kohli has used the likes of Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron to assist Ishant. With Mohammad Shami returning from injury, Kohli has a big task in choosing the right bowler to partner Ishant.
Umesh Yadav and Shami will be fighting for the role of the second pacer and if Kohli decides to go in with 3 pacers (which is unlikely), then Stuart Binny’s name pops out as an all-round option and the all-rounder might get the nod alongside Ishant and either Umesh or Shami.
As far as the spinners are concerned, R Ashwin is the only bowler who is assured of a place in the starting XI. If Kohli decides to go in with three spinners, then both Jadeja and Amit Mishra will be in the XI. If it’s just two spinners, Mishra might get the nod ahead of Jadeja.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
