The worries of the Indian team management seems to have multiplied with the clearing of James Anderson of any charges of pushing or abusing levelled at him by the Indians because of a complete lack of evidence. Now, this will only have the effect of rejuvenating a fiery Anderson, and make him much more eager to prove himself as he gets another go at the Indian batsmen at his home ground of Old Trafford at Manchester this Thursday. Anderson is the one England player who causes dread and fear in the Indian cricket team, and his presence would make England the favourites for the fourth Test, as well as for the rest of the series.
But the biggest problem India has is one of their own making. Coach Duncan Fletcher and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has got their team selection horribly wrong, which cost them the Southampton Test. While Ishant Sharma’s enforced absence because of an injury couldn’t have been helped, the fact that Dhoni and Fletcher decided to replace Ishant with the other Sharma, Rohit Sharma was something that probably cost them the Test.
Having lost their strike bowler, India desperately needed to strengthen their bowling, perhaps by bringing in their quickest bowler, Varun Aaron. But instead, by going for an extra batsman who bowls occasional and harmless off spinners, the Indian management only weakened their bowling, making it so ineffective, and even impotent, that they could only get 11 English wickets in the whole match. And Rohit Sharma hardly set the world on fire with his batting, getting a combined total of less than 30 runs before getting out softly, in both his innings.
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This has been compounded by the refusal of the Indian management to pick Ravichandran Ashwin, easily their best spinner, who is also a capable batsman, with a Test average of almost 40 and with two Test centuries in his name. Indeed, with England having as many as 6 left-handers in their batting line-up, one would have thought that Ashwin, who is one of the best off spin bowlers in the world, would have been a definite pick. But no, Dhoni and Fletcher won’t have him in the playing eleven.
The other serious error has been to continue with Shikhar Dhawan as their opening batsman despite his horrible performance with the bat so far. Dhawan’s batting has been very dodgy throughout the series, and he has looked like a walking wicket, when facing James Anderson in particular. He has routinely got into 10s and 20s before getting out softly, giving catching practice to fielders at the slips or at the gully. And yet, he is persisted with for some strange reason, while India have the highly capable Gautam Gambhir cooling his heels in the pavilion.
Not much can be done about India’s two top players who have been in pathetic form throughout the series – India’s captain and vice-captain. Dhoni and Virat Kohli are irreplaceable regardless of how poorly they perform – as they have. While at least Dhoni has got a couple of half centuries in this series, Kohli is currently having his worst run as a batsman, and is yet to make even one significant score in the series. He has been getting out regularly to soft dismissals, and this really puts a question mark on all the hype created about him being a world beater etc.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami, the two main pace bowlers are also major worries. Shami has completely deteriorated as the series has gone on and his bowling has been completely ineffective, and even harmless. He is down on pace and confidence, and to continue to play him would be cruel. Kumar, on the other hand, had a great start to the series with both the bat and the bowl, but since, he looks completely exhausted. He never had much pace to begin with, but in the last Test, he bowled even slower than his usual, if that’s even possible!
Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane and to an extent, Ravindra Jadeja, have been the only players so far in the Indian team who look strong going into the Old Trafford Test.
Here’s the final Indian team that IndiaBet.org wants to see play at Old Trafford:
Gambhir, Vijay, Pujara, Rahane, Kohli, Dhoni, Jadeja, Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, Varun Aaron and Pankaj Singh.
We want Gambhir and Aaron to get a start, and Shami, Dhawan and Rohit Sharma to be dropped. Pankaj Singh retains his spot as Ishant will miss out again because of his injury.
