They take on England in second Test today
Birmingham: Wins accumulate. Losses multiply. Gautam Gambhir knows this all too well. Appointed as the India head coach just under a year ago, he has presided over just three wins from 11 Test matches. Losses, he has seen seven, with the most crushing coming last week in Leeds when England chased 371 fourth-innings runs with ease.
Gambhir has had an extended honeymoon largely because of his white-ball exploits, chief among them the Champions Trophy victory earlier this year. But goodwill isn’t eternal, and thus, recovering from the 0-1 deficit in the five-match series will be prime on the agenda when India takes on England in the second Test at Edgbaston.
The kerfuffle over the composition of the bowling attack in the potential absence of Bumrah has only made matters tougher. Apart from Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja – who offered control but not wicket-taking threat – no one appears to be an automatic pick.
Perhaps, this was always on the cards. With Mohammed Shami unavailable and Bumrah unable to play for extended stretches, the largely inexperienced pace-bowling pack has to learn on the job. And if the pitch here turns out to be as flat and dry as the one in Headingley, and the weather mostly warm as predicted, bowlers will need to display more imagination and guile than in the opening contest.
Shubman Gill’s role here will be crucial. In Leeds, the skipper largely relied on four bowlers and under-bowled – or did not trust – Shardul Thakur. It is doubtful if the Mumbai all-rounder will keep his place as India looks to balance the twin requirements of taking 20 wickets and extending its batting depth. Even as the top and middle-order batters came good, they will continue to carry the burden of scoring big runs to give its floundering bowlers some elbow room.
The long and short of it
India’s bowling attack at Leeds lacked penetration, particularly missing a specialist wicket-taking spinner like Kuldeep Yadav. As assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted, they’re “grappling” to find a combination that doesn’t compromise batting depth while ensuring they have bowlers capable of taking 20 wickets.
India must choose between two contrasting options as their second spinner alongside Ravindra Jadeja:
Washington Sundar is “quite handy with the bat” but less threatening as a wicket-taker, or Kuldeep Yadav, a “much better wicket-taking option” but provides minimal batting contribution With Bumrah’s availability uncertain, India’s pace attack becomes more vulnerable. The other pacers (M Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna) did not have the required consistency in their lengths at Leeds.
India are also weighing whether to persist with fast-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur or switch to batting all-rounder Nitish Reddy, seeking more runs from the lower order after two costly tail-end collapses.
