India vs England: Depleted hosts not shying away from sweeping changes for second Test

Indian cricket team are in a position they haven’t faced in quite a while. They trail a Test series at home and are without some of their most senior players. Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul are all out of contention for the second Test. There is no Cheteshwar Pujara or Ajinkya Rahane experience to fall back upon.

Sure India have been down in home Tests five times since 2000. But only the 2004 Australian team was able to make it count for a series win. Even when England beat India 2-1 in 2012, the last time a team was able to win a series in India, they came from behind to win back-to-back matches.

In 2017, Australia demolished India by 333 runs in Pune for a morale boosting win. But India roared back to win in Bengaluru and Dharamsala to seal the series. England, too, took a 1-0 series lead in 2021, clinching a thumping 227 run win in Chennai. But India came back with crushing wins of their own to clinch the series 3-1.

Coming to 2024 series. England won the opener by 28 runs despite India holding a convincing 190 run first-innings lead. Ollie Pope scored 196 runs before Tom Hartley took seven wickets for a shock-and-awe in Hyderabad.

At Visakhapatnam, India will try to ensure there’s no repeat of 2012 where they lost consecutive home Test matches. India will be bolstered by the fact that they have a 2-0 record at the venue. But that’s pretty much it as far as positive takeaways go.

In Hyderabad, England batters, led by Pope, swept and reverse swept their way to success leaving India’s spin trio ineffective. One of them, Jadeja, will not be in the plans paving way for Axar Patel. It shifts focus and pressure squarely on Ashwin, four shy of the 500-wicket milestone in Tests. It remains to be seen if India borrow from England’s strategy of playing one seamer (Jasprit Bumrah) and go with four spinners with Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav forming the quartet. Uncapped left-arm spinner Sourabh Kumar will also be a consideration but looks unlikely to get a Test cap just yet.

Unlike their visiting counterparts, India don’t prefer the sweep and reverse sweep brand of cricket but noticed it be put to good use. Enough that the Indian cricket team put it to use during the nets on Wednesday. Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer will be under tremendous pressure after failing to deliver once again.

Test cap will be handed out for sure in Visakhapatnam but remains to be seen which of Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan come into the lineup. India batting coach Vikram Rathour said of the predicament: “It will be a tough choice. What value they bring to the team, of course, is that they are superb players. We have seen how well they have done in domestic cricket in the last few years.”

For the visitors, Jimmy Anderson and Shoaib Bashir have come into the playing XI at the expense of Mark Wood and injured Jack Leach. It makes it a like-for-like substitution in terms of team constitution – one seamer and three spinners, with the support of Joe Root.

Ben Stokes displayed incredible captaincy skills to back Hartley in the second innings despite being wacked around by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first essay. His leadership stood out in stark contrast to a defensive-minded approach shown by Rohit Sharma and Co. who retreated despite being in the ascendancy.

The ACA-VDCA Stadium has hosted two Test matches and the pitch favoured batters in the first innings with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma among the runs. England have thrown down the gauntlet with a sensational result and it remains to be seen what kind of surface India go with as they seek to draw parity. A downright turner could backfire for India, although they would be tempted to take that punt.

India squad for second Test: Rohit Sharma (C), 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 XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.