Captain Rohit Sharma had rightly said that English conditions aren’t alien to Team India cricketers. India played five Tests in England across 2021 and 2022, winning two and losing as many with one drawn game. Some of the current players had also featured on the 2018 tour.
So when the Rohits and Virat Kohlis go into another World Test Championship (WTC) final in England, this time against Australia at The Oval (in London), they shouldn’t be intimidated by the conditions. That said, it would be wiser if they take the conditions into account and finalise their XI accordingly against the Australians, who are expected to do better than how they fared on turning tracks in the just-concluded Test series in India.
In the 2021 WTC final in Southampton against New Zealand, India fielded spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja when the conditions at the Ageas Bowl were overcast and seamer-friendly. That decision backfired as India went on to miss the services of a fourth seamer as New Zealand won that final by eight wickets.
At The Oval, the pitch is usually good for batting for the first three days before going on to assist the spinners from Day IV onwards. It will be the early part of English summer when the coming WTC decider begins on June 7.
It’s cooler in May and June in England, which leads to more swing and seam movement, making the conditions ideal for the quicks.
The last time India played a Test at The Oval was in September 2021, when the weather there is comparatively a lot warmer. In that game too, India had gone in with three specialist fast bowlers, a seamer all-rounder (Japsrit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur) and Jadeja, beating England by 157 runs.
KL Rahul. PTI photo
Come June, India will hopefully not repeat the mistake they made in the previous WTC final against New Zealand and include a fourth seamer or seamer all-rounder if the conditions so warrant. As the fourth seamer, Shardul could be the preferred one because of his experience in English conditions and his ability to contribute with the bat lower down the order.
The selection committee, it has been learnt, will most likely include a specialist pacer as back-up in the squad for the WTC final in case any of the frontline quicks — Mohammed Shami, Umesh and Siraj — get indisposed during a long IPL season.
“You have someone like Jaydev Unadkat, who has been performing consistently in the Ranji Trophy, while Bengal’s Mukesh Kumar too is another performer with the red ball,” cricket advisory committee member Ashok Malhotra said.
Batting order
When not playing on docile surfaces, India’s batting continues to be a concern. The top order hasn’t been too reliable lately while wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat is yet to compensate for the absence of Rishabh Pant.
Skipper Rohit, ShubmanGill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli appear to be the confirmed top four. But with uncertainty over Shreyas Iyer because of his resurfacing lower-back pain, will India again go back to KL Rahul, who was dropped for the last two Tests versus Australia owing to poor form?
“If need be, you can try Rahul as a keeper-batter since Bharat hasn’t done well. Also, why not try SuryakumarYadav at No.5? Could be a bold move,” Malhotra argued.
