London, Jan 30: It will be interesting to see what happens when Rohit Sharma comes out with the team sheet for the 2nd Test vs England in Visakhapatnam. The Test starts on February 2 and expect India to make a strong come back and play hard cricket. Couple of worries for them to deal with as KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out of the squad for the 2nd Test due to respective injuries.
Jadeja is out due to hamstring issue while Rahul has pain in his right quadriceps. These two are unavailable for selection and their absence opens gates for the likes of Sarfaraz and Rajat. But will they both get their debuts on February 2? If these two play, either of Shubman Gill or Shreyas Iyer will have to make way for them. Gill and Iyer are desperate for runs but are very experienced than Sarfaraz and Rajat. Indian middle-order conundrum continues as without Kohli and with out-of-form batters, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma are having a big headache and have a big call to take.
Washinton Sunday, right-arm off spinner and batter, has been called in as replacement for Ravindra Jadeja. He is likely to play as India will seek batting depth. Dravid and Rohit can even play Kuldeep in Jadeja’s place. But with the left-arm wrist spinner’s admission into the XI, the batting depth goes away a Kuldeep is not as good as as Jadeja, Axar or Sundar. For the same reason, Sundra might get a go from the management.
India are likely to stick with their 3 spinners and 2 pacers combination with Axar, R Ashwin and Sundar/Kuldeep being the three spinners and Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj being the pacer. If Gill is tobe played, the batting order needs to be reshuffled as advise by Wasim Jaffer earlier. Jaffer feels that Gill should go back to his previous role as an opener and Rohit should drop himself to number 3. This will give Gill the match situation which he is used to. It will be interesting to see if this course of action is executed in the 2nd Test in Vizag.
India Probable Playing 11 for 2nd Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar/Sarfaraz Khan, KS Bharat, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav/Washington Sundar.
