After a packed white-ball run, India will gear up for as many as ten Test matches in the coming four and a half months.
The upcoming season will be exciting in numerous ways. After a packed white-ball run, India will gear up for as many as ten Test matches in the coming four and a half months.
The Test team is going through a mini transition, and injuries and availabilities further reduced the player pool. However, that opened opportunities for fresh players to showcase their talent earlier in the year. As many as five players debuted for India during the England series due to the regulars’ absence.
To their credit, almost every player impressed immediately and showed the team was ready for a successful transition. The team now has plenty of options to choose from. That will bring headaches to the selectors now that seniors are available again.
Assuming Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul are fit, they will come straightaway into the XI. However, a couple of slots will be available for backups in the squad. The list is long.
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Dhruv Jurel, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, and Rajat Patidar will vie for just two spots. Assuming Rahul’s fitness concerns, Jurel might find a place as a backup wicketkeeper to ease Rahul’s workload. Even technique-wise, Jurel can play as a batter, as visible in the England series.
He was picking lengths early vs spinners, which helped him get forward for fuller-length deliveries, and then used his feet well to get to the pitch of the ball while playing shots down the ground. Similarly, his base was stable vs pace and covered his stumps well, allowing him to judge and leave balls well. His range of shots was impressive, and, more importantly, Jurel employed them precisely to manoeuvre the field and find gaps around the park.
Nerveless Jurel 🥶#INDvENG #JioCinemaSports #BazBowled #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries pic.twitter.com/nYn053BM5I
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) February 16, 2024
Ben Stokes tried different tactics to control Jurel’s ability to play shots and pierce vacant areas but could hardly succeed. In fact, Jurel rarely erred against spin, for his foot movement was precise like playing shorter-length deliveries off the back foot and remaining ahead for fuller ones. He would not shy from attempting different shots while ensuring safety and was always proactive in pouncing on every run-scoring opportunity.
That leaves one spot for four batters, who all have distinct qualities. Like Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Shreyas Iyer, and Rajat Patidar are terrific spin players. But they all have different methods.
Sarfaraz is among the most unorthodox batters vs slow bowlers; he uses different sweeps and cross-batted shots, even on uneven bounce tracks. He targets the most unusual areas, even if he has to shuffle in his crease or give some room to himself. Further, he also hits shots against the line of the delivery by employing slog sweeps or comes close to the ball while targeting the V.
While Sarfaraz struggles with high-end pace, he showed encouraging signs in his debut series. He would duck Mark Wood’s bouncers well and get behind the line while defending. At times, he used the pace of Anderson and Stokes to earn his boundaries and deal in quick runs while also blocking with soft hands, an effective method against medium pacers.
Wood’s got pace? Sarfaraz has the answer 😎#IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #BazBowled #INDvENG #JioCinemaSport pic.twitter.com/htRkcp57X1
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) March 8, 2024
Meanwhile, Rajat Patidar might have a tough England series, but he is a genuine stroke-maker who can bash spin with a natural bat swing. Even during that series, he showed flashes of brilliance with the willow. He would let the ball come to him before making any foot movement and hit anything overpitched by quickly reading it.
Even against pacers, Patidar covered the line while defending and would block with a straight bat face. Anything on the shorter side also got the required treatment. Maybe he was slightly unlucky to get a few sharp deliveries, resulting in wickets, but that doesn’t make him a bad player.
Devdutt Padikkal also had an impressive debut in the same series, even though his spin game didn’t look fully convincing. While he played shorter-length deliveries well, he often ended up on the back foot on fuller-length deliveries. It can lead to dismissals against quicker spinners, especially on low-bounce tracks.
Devdutt Padikkal shines with a 50 on debut 💪 🔥#IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #BazBowled #INDvENG #JioCinemaSport pic.twitter.com/hjyy6bTukf
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) March 8, 2024
Then, his game against high pace is not promising enough. It was also visible during IPL 2024, where he looked listless against them. With more fielders square and behind square, Padikkal can be kept in check by dragging the lengths back.
Shreyas Iyer’s spin game has recently taken a slight hit, but he is still skilled enough to counter them in Tests. During the Bangladesh tour, Iyer used the depth of the crease well and even played length deliveries off the back foot, which reaped ample success for him. He used sweeps well and took calculated risks vs Shakib to put on a show.
His struggles against shorter-length deliveries are well documented. However, his chances of succeeding are relatively high against a team like Bangladesh, whose strength is spin bowling. Yes, they have someone like Nahid Rana, who can bowl at pace but is still raw and inexperienced, whereas other pacers are mostly limited to medium pace, even though Taskin can bowl at pace in a few spells.
The medium-pacers might not be a problem for any of these Indian batters. The real test begins when the pace surges and the lengths become shorter. It will boil down to who plays the spin best among the lot.
That will be the real Test against experienced Bangladeshi spinners. Tweakers will have a major say in the proceedings on the two venues allotted for the Bangladesh series – Chennai and Kanpur. Both will have a low bounce and might get slower and slower with the game, as visible in the past.
At this stage, Patidar’s poor outing against England and Padikkal’s issues against pace and spin might tempt the selectors to look beyond them. The decision might eventually be between Iyer and Sarfaraz, and both have had troubles with pace. However, Sarfaraz should get the nod because of his encouraging signs against shorter-length balls in the England series.
Further, he has earned it after terrific performances in domestic cricket over a prolonged period. Even while playing for India, he grabbed his chances with both hands. It would be hard to ignore him, for he has done absolutely nothing wrong in red-ball cricket.
Sarfaraz has also lately worked on his fitness and getting in better shape before the red-ball carnival. What would be the explanation behind leaving him out? Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan may be the players to go ahead with.
That would mean Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant will be the first-choice options for the XI. Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan can be in the squad, acting as the backup in case of injuries or form issues of one of these players.
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