With the kind of dominance that India showed in the series opener against the West Indies in Dominica, winning the match by an innings and 141 runs inside three days, there ideally should not be any confusion about their playing XI, provided everybody is fit. But considering the fact that the second Test against the West Indies, slated to begin on Thursday, will be India's last before their next Test match against South Africa right at the end of this year, it is the only opportunity to give some game-time to some of the younger players, especially Mukesh Kumar.
Mukesh Kumar is being groomed as someone who can share the load with Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah. But the Bengal speedster is yet to make his international debut. India could think of bringing him in in place of either Jaydev Unadkat or Shardul Thakur.
Unadkat brings in the left-arm angle and with Ashwin, and Jadeja both there in the XI, there is not much need to strengthen the lower order with Shardul's batting. Therefore, Mukesh for Shardul seems like a logical change in Trinidad.
But will Rohit Sharma do it? Veteran India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik doesn't think so. Karthik said India won't make any changes to their XI for the second Test.
"India won't make any changes be it their mindset, skillset or playing XI. They will bring the same brand of cricket to the table. They have been very strong, very sure about what they want. The Ashwin-Jadeja combo has done wonders. Debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal has done well. There is no room for a change unless there's a change. They have had a five-day break. In the Caribbean, you generally go to the beaches and that's what they must've done for the first two-three days and then they would've practised for two days," Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
‘West Indies have a mental block against India’: Dinesh Karthik
{{/usCountry}}"India won't make any changes be it their mindset, skillset or playing XI. They will bring the same brand of cricket to the table. They have been very strong, very sure about what they want. The Ashwin-Jadeja combo has done wonders. Debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal has done well. There is no room for a change unless there's a change. They have had a five-day break. In the Caribbean, you generally go to the beaches and that's what they must've done for the first two-three days and then they would've practised for two days," Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
‘West Indies have a mental block against India’: Dinesh Karthik
{{/usCountry}}Talking about the West Indies, Karthik said they need to get rid of the mental blockage against India, which, he believes, has played a major part in them not winning a Test against the sub-continent giants since 2002.
"This becomes an even more important one for West Indies because they haven't won a Test against since 2002. That's almost two decades. They would want to turn that around but they have a mental block against India. They need to find a way to sort that out. Do they need to make some changes? There's fast bowler, Shanon Gabriel, do they bring him in place of one of the seamers or do they strengthen their batting by dropping an extra seamer? Kirk McKenzie is an option," Karthik added.
"What West Indies need to bring is a lot of fire. They are capable of that. Under Kraigg Brathwaite, they have done a few special things, they need to draw confidence from them. They need to draw belief from that. Somewhere they have lost it in their mind before the Test started and this is not how international cricket should be played. I think they know that they are a much better team than the performance they have put in in the last Test," he said.