An under-pressure and under-resourced Team India will need to think out of the box to counter England’s fearless bunch of ‘Bazballers’ in the second Test at Vizag. The second test match will begin at 9.30 am.
India are seldom stretched at home but following a dramatic loss in Hyderabad, they have plenty to ponder and the absence of injured Ravindra Jadeja and K L Rahul has made their task tougher.
England, on the other hand, might sense a golden opportunity to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series that can severely mount pressure on the Indians.
The way Stokes used and backed his resources in the opener was a captaincy masterclass.
The call to give an extended spell to debutant spinner Hartley in the first innings despite Yashasvi Jaiswal’s brutal assault and learning from how Ashwin and Co. bowled spoke a lot about the leadership style of Stokes, who calls himself a great observer of the game.
Uncapped spinner Shoaib Bashir is all set to make his debut in the Visakhapatnam Test, as England continue to prefer a three-prong spin attack. Jack Leach is missing from the setup due to a knee injury.
The right-arm off-break Somerset bowler has six first-class games to his name. He has 10 wickets at an average of 67 in red-ball cricket.
Veteran pacer James Anderson also returns in place of Mark Wood. The 41-year-old pacer last featured against Australia at The Oval in July 2023.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Sourabh Kumar.
England (Playing 11): Ben Stokes (Captain), Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.
Pitch Update:
The Hyderabad pitch offered turn from day one but Stokes reckoned the Vizag surface might be better for batting at least in the initial phase of the game.
“It might be a good wicket for maybe a day or two. But out here in India and other parts of the sub-continent, you tend to see it start to spin more and more as the Test goes deeper and deeper.
Even though it does look like there’s a little bit more moisture in there with the heat – and today is very hot again – any footholes and stuff like that might come into play the further the Test goes.
“It might play a little bit better initially than it did last week, but we don’t like to go in with too many pre-conceived ideas, we like to have some kind of idea because obviously that’s how we pick the team. Then we just play what’s in front of us,” he said.
‘Zak, Ben at the top have been incredible’.
*With Agency Inputs
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Published: 01 Feb 2024, 06:28 PM IST