England vs India 2018: Likely Indian playing XI for Lord's Test

England v India: Specsavers 1st Test - Day Three

Virat Kohli

Kohli had a great game in Edgbaston, scoring 200 runs. He has also been in great form lately. He scored 286 runs in the three-Test match series against South Africa earlier this year at an average of 47.67. These were difficult conditions to score runs as was evident by the low scoring games that we had in South Africa.

Kohli also altered his technique for the first Test match against England, because of which he got more runs in that Test compared to the whole of 2014 England tour. I discussed the reason why Kohli was successful in the last Test in my previous article England vs India: What Virat Kohli did differently in the first Test. Being the captain of the Indian team and the great form he is carrying with him, he is a certainty at number 4.

Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane has found himself in and out of the team this year. To be fair, in the Test matches that he got the opportunity to play, he did not make full use of it. He is averaging in the twenties this year with the bat, whereas we are used to seeing him averaging in 40s and 50s in the past.

The lack of confidence was clearly visible by the way he approached his batting in both the innings. In the first innings, he got out chasing a wide delivery, which he could have easily left. In the second innings, he was focusing on surviving and never made any attempt to score runs.

However, he is likely to retain his place in the team as the number 5 batter as India doesn't have a ready replacement for him. The only potential candidate for his replacement is Karun Nair. Karun Nair became famous when got a triple century against England in 2016, but post that his form dipped and he was dropped from the team after five more Tests.

His recent form has also betrayed him. He did not have a good IPL this year, and his stint for India A also did not pay rich dividends. He scored only 4 against Essex, which makes his case even weaker for the next Test match.

Dinesh Karthik

Karthik also had an ordinary run in the last Test match as he could score only 20 runs and was ordinary behind the stumps as well. However, I think the team management will likely give him another chance as he showed some improvement in his batting in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test.

Like Kohli, he tried to counter the swing by batting outside his crease, which got him some runs. If he fails to perform in the second Test, he could most likely be replaced by Rishabh Pant.

Pant is in good form this year. He had a fantastic IPL having scored 684 runs at an average of 52.6. He was named emerging player of the year in IPL this year for his efforts. Post-IPL, he had a good stint with India A team as well, having scored five scores of above 50 runs.