Deepening India’s injury crisis, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is likely to be ruled out for the fourth Test in Manchester. On Sunday morning, during the gym session, he reported to the physios about a niggle. Scans confirmed damage on his ligament, which could force his absence for India’s must-win Test that starts on July 23 and puts his tour in jeopardy.
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The swelling list of casualties in the tour has been a crushing blow to India’s hopes of squaring the series they trail 2-1 at Old Trafford. Already, Birmingham hero Akash Deep will miss the Test due to a groin niggle while Arshdeep Singh, yet to make his debut, suffered a cut on his bowling arm when stopping a ball from B Sai Sudharsan during practice. According to the Indian cricket board’s release, he will take at least 10 days to heal, which makes him doubtful for the fifth Test at Oval too.
Long, intense tours come with injury setbacks, but what unsettles India is that it has affected their seam-bowling department the most. The strapping Anshul Kamboj has been called as cover, but with only three days for the Test, his fitness and readiness remains to be seen for a potential debut. Consequently, India would be forced to recall Prasidh Krishna, scattergun in both Leeds and Birmingham, bleeding 5.53 runs an over for six wickets at 55.13 apiece, or Shardul Thakur, discarded after the Leeds thrashing. Or they both could return. Two bowlers with shattered morale is the last thing India would want in a boom or bust match. The extra workload could also overburden India’s lead pace acts, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj too. The latter has played all three and former would feature in the third, the ceiling his physios had advised him to play.
A left-field option would be handing out Kuldeep Yadav his first game of the tour. The left-arm wrist spinner was in contention for the second Test before India chose the all-round utility of Washington Sundar after the capitulations in Leeds. He did not disappoint in the second innings at Lord’s, though his contributions with the bat were negligible. Should Kuldeep return, it would be a rare instance when India had employed three spinners in England post the quartet era. Since 2000 in England, India have packed their side with two spinners only seven times in 31 games, despite possessing a stellar cast of Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja at various time.
But Old Trafford would not be an unfavourable venue for a three-pronged spin attack. In the last here, Shoaib Basheer snared three wickets in the first innings and Sri Lanka opened the bowling with spinners Prabath Jayasuriya and Dhananjaya de Silva. Of late the pitches have been flat and the surface bereft of the pace it once had. Former captain and pundit Mike Atherton dwelled on the deck’s flatness in a Sky Sports podcast.
“I had a chat with Jimmy (James Anderson) who said the pitches have been flat. Since they turned around the pitches (90 degrees from its east-west sitting to north-south direction), they haven’t had the pace. There are a couple of pitches in the end with some zing but the middle, the televised pitches are flat this season,” Atherton said.
“I think wrist spin goes well on those circumstances. If Kuldeep is going to play Old Trafford is the place. I was wondering if they could go with Bumrah and Siraj and play their three spinners in Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep,” he added.
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Moreover, Kuldeep, England’s destroyer at home last year, could pose a psychological clutch on the batsmen. He snared 19 wickets at 20.15 to disarray the tourists. He has been working diligently to succeed in England, from practising with Dukes ball to gathering tips about English batsmen from Kevin Pietersen. Leg-spinners tend to get considerable drift on the ground, where his idol Shane Warne conjured the ball of the century three decades ago. It was one of Warne’s favourite haunts in England (21 wickets in three Tests and several worldies). As it was for Jim Laker, whose perfect ten came here. Monty Panesar and West Indies’ Lance Gibbs too feature in the top-10 wicket-takers on this ground, in case India are seeking history to decide the playing eleven.
Pant specialist bat; Jurel to keep
Rishabh Pant would likely feature as a specialist batsman with Dhruv Jurel keeping the stumps. Pant had suffered a blow to his left index finger on the first day of the Lord’s Test when trying to collect a leg-side bound ball of Bumrah. Dhruv took the keeping duties even though Pant batted in both innings. Even when batting, he seemed in occasional discomfort. But he has been one of India’s batting pillars this series and hence would not be dropped altogether. Who Jurel will displace in the eleven has to be seen. Him replacing Reddy would distort the bowling depth, but him replacing a specialist batsman would force changes in the batting order. Either way, injury-induced selection woes afflict India before the must-win Test.
