Ahead of the England test, India need to answer the question of balance

With Ravindra Jadeja having a limited role to play in the Southampton Test, India may look to reassess the team composition

When Ajinkya Rahane nicked one down the leg side, 20 overs and 100 minutes into the morning session of Day 6 on Wednesday, India were 109/5, only 77 runs in front. But for India’s move to play two spinners who can bat, Rahane’s wicket could well have been the World Test Championship for New Zealand.

India wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant. (Reuters)

As it turned out, Ravindra Jadeja didn’t score many but he and Rishabh Pant did post a 33-run sixth wicket stand. Jadeja withstood Neil Wagner’s short ball onslaught even as Pant went on an adventurous spree of reverse swipes and bludgeoning hits. Had Jadeja-Pant doubled their partnership, the end may well have been different.

The Southampton Test exposed the lack of sharpness in India’s bowling during different passages of play. Unlike New Zealand, Indian bowlers struggled to exploit the conditions in the absence of the fourth fast bowler and a genuine swing bowler. It was New Zealand’s four-pronged pace attack that picked all the 20 wickets but they got 12 first innings overs of military medium-pace from Colin de Grandhomme. He generated 2.63 degrees of swing, the most in the Test.

For India, left-arm spinner Jadeja was the fifth bowler. A matchwinner at home averaging 21.06 for 157 wickets, in overcast swing-friendly conditions he was reduced to being a limited defensive option. Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s foremost spinner, was able to take the conditions out of the equation with his craft, form, dominance against left handers and the ability to polish off tail.

Virat Kohli was asked in the post-match presentation, if he would have benefitted with a different combination. “The combination that we play, we have been successful with those over different conditions all over the world,” he said. “We all came to a conclusion that that’s the best eleven we can take on the field. That gives us batting depth as well.”

India have occasionally played two spinners outside the sub-continent but Jadeja and Ashwin were playing together only the second time in England. The India captain conceded they were missing the fast-bowling all-rounder. For all of India’s strength in depth, resources have been so scarce in this department that only Hardik Pandya’s name keeps popping up. Pandya last played a Test at Southampton in 2018, a series in which he bagged a five-wicket-haul and promised to be a game-changing all-rounder. He was being prepped to play a role in England again, but back and shoulder troubles put paid to such plans.

When Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were tiring towards the end of long spells, cameras zoomed to the most Test-ready of young fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj, who was watching proceedings from the dugout. The team think-tank had resisted the temptation to play him or Umesh Yadav with his extra yard of pace, because that would have meant an embarrassingly long tail. “We wanted to cover all bases. If we had more game time and the wicket wore out, the spinners might have come into the wicket a bit more,” said Kohli.

Unlike India, England have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fast bowling all-rounders. Ben Stokes, returning from injury, is the one of the best around. His average differential (batting average minus bowl average) in England is 10.97, away from home it dips to - 8.49. England skipper Joe Root also has Sam Curran and Chris Woakes to choose from, both of whom can swing the ball too.

Between now and the first Test in Nottingham in August, India have five weeks to plug the gaps. Shardul Thakur, who showed in Brisbane that he can score in Test cricket and has been a swing bowler in the domestic circuit, is an option India could consider. This and other selection calls will be taken based on intra-squad face-offs before the Test series.