Either Hardik Pandya or Karun Nair could realise their dream as India gets ready for the first of the five-Test series against England, set to start at the Saurashtra Cricket Stadium here from Wednesday.
The Baroda allrounder Pandya and Karnataka’s specialist middle-order batsman Karun, came into the Test reckoning after Rohit Sharma was injured in the fifth and final One-Day International against New Zealand.
With Rohit ruled out for at least 12 weeks, the No. 6 spot in the batting order is up for grabs and in normal circumstances, Karun would have been the automatic choice. But the chairman of the senior selection committee M.S.K. Prasad set tongues wagging after he sang paean about Pandya’s high-calibre performance with the ball and bat in the ODIs against New Zealand and improved attitude.
The team’s coach Anil Kumble virtually endorsed Prasad’s views on Pandya during the media interaction last Sunday, but what is not known is if the Baroda player would be given the No. 6 position that links the middle order and the lower order that itself has the likes of R. Ashwin, who puts so much value on his wicket.
With just 16 first class matches behind him, Pandya lacks substantial number of runs, the yardstick applied by the specialist batsmen to impress the selectors and get their approval. In this context Pandya is lucky.
Someone like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid or V.V.S. Laxman had to prove his worth with heavy scores, but it is widely speculated that it was Dravid (the coach of the India-A team in Australia recently), who issued the excellence certificate to Pandya and with Prasad being present in Australia for the ‘A’ series tournament that India-A won, the potential index in Pandya received a big boost.
Prasad had no qualms in explaining why Pandya was preferred over either Stuart Binny or Rishi Dhawan.
While Pandya’s talent in Twenty20 and ODI’s has been recognised, Karun has been piling up runs in India’s domestic first class tournaments and in matches of high stakes like the Ranji Trophy final.
Karun, who will turn 25 soon, came in at the expense of injured Shikhar Dhawan after the second Test against New Zealand, and he was retained for the first two Tests announced by the selection committee in Mumbai.
Kumble averred at the press conference that Karun would indeed get his chance, that the team would back him. The coach’s words only revealed that Karun would not be dropped without being given his due.
While the team would mull over the team composition and hand over the first Test cap to either Pandya or Karun, there seems to be every possibility of leg-spinner Amit Mishra being picked as the third spinner in the XI.
Mishra had a long session with the bat in the final part of India’s preparation when the likes of Vijay, Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara ,Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha faced throw downs from Kumble and Sanjay Bangar and also faced fast bowler Umesh Yadav, Pandya and the three spinners.
The appearance of the pitch has changed in a couple of days and everything was probably done to favour the home team’s spinners, but the likes of England off-spinner Moeen Ali and leg-spinner Adil Rashid, both of whom are looking forward to playing their first Test in India, could benefit too. They have been working with former Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, the England team’s spin coach.
Record 55th timeWhile India delayed the announcement of Test XI, the England skipper Alastair Cook, who will be leading England for the record 55th time, said that the 19-year-old opening batsman Haseeb Hameed would make his Test debut.
Ben Duckett may bat at No. 4 at the expense of Gary Balance. Jos Buttler, who sparkled for Mumbai Indians in the IPL season this year, is likely to get the nod too.
Kohli has won the toss seven times on the trot and should he be lucky with the toss again, India would have the first opportunity to take advantage of a wicket that may not cause alarms in the first two days.
The teams (from):
India: Virat Kohli (capt.), Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, R. Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Hardik Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav.
England: Alastair Cook (capt.), Haseeb Hameed, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Steve Finn, Jake Ball, Gareth Batty, Gary Balance, Zafar Ansari, Chris Woakes.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena and Chris Gaffaney; Third: Rod Tucker; Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle.
