India have never won a Test match at Old Trafford.
The fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy is set to commence on July 23 in Manchester. This Test will be important for both India and England’s chances in the series. A win for the hosts will seal the series, while the visitors will be itching to draw level after a disheartening loss. England have declared their playing XI, and will be going in with just a solitary change. Liam Dawson will play in place of Shoaib Bashir. The latter is ruled out of the series due to an injury during the third Test. As for the Indians, the third Test was the last of the series for Nitish Reddy. Moreover, Arshdeep Singh and Akash Deep are both out of contention for the Test at Old Trafford. Ravichandran Ashwin expressed a different opinion via his YouTube channel.
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With a pool of forced changes, Shubman Gill and the team management will be forced to think about their combination for the Test. Nitish Reddy looked good with bat and ball in the Lord’s Test. In his absence, India will have to fill the all-rounder’s void. They can bring in Shardul Thakur as a like-for-like replacement. But that will deny Kuldeep Yadav a place in the playing XI. Amid all the narratives around India’s playing XI, former off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has presented a very interesting idea to Gautam Gambhir. Ashwin took to his YouTube channel to express his views on the same. He stated that playing Washington Sundar at three would be a good option.
According to Ashwin, playing Washington Sundar at three will open the doors for Kuldeep Yadav to come into the side. Karun Nair hasn’t made any significant contributions with the six innings he has had till now, and might get the axe ahead of the fourth Test in Manchester. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) spinner went on to express that Sundar has done well at the top of the order in domestic cricket, and surely can play the new swinging delivery. With that out of the picture, Ashwin opined that the team can look to play Dhruv Jurel or Sai Sudharsan in place of Nitish Reddy. That way, Kuldeep Yadav gets to play, and India can also bank on a specialist batter to ensure they have enough batting depth.
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Batting in the top-order isn’t very new for the off-spinner from Tamil Nadu. He has experience of batting at three for his domestic side. Moreover, he has shown his ability to stay put on the crease, portraying his solid defense. These strengths might come in handy for the visitors if they decide to play him at three in Manchester. Since Cheteshwar Pujara played his last Test for India, the team has tested multiple players for the role, with Shubman Gill being the batter with the most appearances at three. However, with Gill shifting base to four after Virat Kohli’s retirement, the spot is again up for grabs. Apart from the Indian skipper, only Virat Kohli has managed to score a fifty batting at three (apart from Pujara). This is enough to know the challenges that the spot holds.
Sundar has been an asset to the team. His bowling helped the team get the better of the English middle-order in the third Test at Lord’s. Sundar’s spell in the second innings helped India limit the hosts to 192. However, his batting is yet to come to the party. In 11 Test matches in his career so far, the all-rounder from Tamil Nadu has scored 545 runs with a highest score of an unbeaten 96. His average of 38.92 speaks volumes about his temperament at the highest level. But whether he can ace the challenge of batting at three is what will be interesting to see.
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