TACTICAL PREVIEW
Follow UsIt’s not often that there are eight full days between Test matches in India, but the rather slow-paced scheduling of this 47-day long tour sees India and England return to action after a refreshing, lengthy break.
It was a much-needed reset for both sides, who chose to spend their off days in their own fashion. While India opted to mix family time with practice and preparation, England decided to do a full detox, unwinding in Abu Dhabi for a good seven days before returning to India on Monday (February 13).
So with the two sides refreshed both mentally and physically, they now turn their attention back to the series, which is all square after two games. And all their immediate focus will fully be on the third Test, starting Thursday (February 15), which will be played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot.
Thanks to injuries and personal reasons, both sides will not be full-strength for this encounter. India (KL Rahul & Virat Kohli) and England (Jack Leach) were both dealt with severe blows during the break.
However, things could easily have gotten worse for the tourists, who nearly ended up losing the services of Rehan Ahmed due to a visa goof-up.
But thankfully for the Three Lions, that’s now been sorted, meaning they can put to bed all distractions and focus on the actual cricket.
It’s a massive clash, for with the score reading 1-1, the series could just end up going the way of the team that emerges victorious in this contest.
Things to watch out for
India need Rohit Sharma to get back amongst the runs
Three years ago, when England came to India for a four-Test series, the visitors found it near impossible to stop Rohit Sharma, who finished that particular series with 345 runs @ 57.50 despite batting on some extreme decks.
Thanks to his super rich vein of form at home, Rohit was expected to dominate this ongoing series.
However, it’s been quite the struggle for the Indian skipper, who thus far has managed just 90 runs in the series at an average of 22.50.
It’s been a bizarre series so far for the Indian captain, who has found runs hard to come by irrespective of his approach.
After throwing away two starts in Hyderabad as a result of being overly aggressive, Rohit approached the first innings of the Vizag Test super cautiously. But there he perished for 14 after tickling an innocuous delivery from Shoaib Bashir straight to leg-slip. He then got an absolute pearler from Jimmy Anderson in the second innings and was sent back to the pavilion for 13.
From Rohit’s perspective, a good thing is that there’s been no set pattern to his dismissals. But he needs to get back amongst the runs, and do so quickly for his team’s sake.
India’s failure to kill England with the bat has so far been a theme in this series, and a part of it is due to their skipper’s form with the bat.
How do England combat the unstoppable Bumrah?
For all pre-series talk of how ‘Bazball wouldn’t work against Indian spinners in India’, the English batters have done an admirable job against India’s slower bowlers: against Ashwin, Axar, Kuldeep and Jadeja, they’ve averaged 37.8 while striking at 71.7. Across four innings, they’ve not let the Indian spinners ‘run through them’ even once.
However, they’ve had no answers whatsoever to the pace of Jasprit Bumrah, who has OBLITERATED them.
Read: Decoded: Jasprit Bumrah, the giant amongst men
In a series that’s actually been favorable for batting, the right-armer has averaged a staggering 10.6. Only two English batters (Duckett and Crawley) have averaged over 20 against Bumrah in this series, and in Vizag, he pretty much single-handedly bowled India to victory.
Bumrah has run through the England batters for fun, especially with the old ball, but the biggest impact he’s made in this series is completely neutralizing the threat of Joe Root, and also keeping both Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow under check.
Last week, England head coach Brendon McCullum admitted that, at the moment, England don’t quite know how to nullify Bumrah’s threat. But the Three Lions will have to find a way to tame the number one bowler in the world if they are to stand a chance of winning this series.
The Rajkot wicket is expected to be ‘flat’, but if there’s one thing we learned in Vizag, it’s that Bumrah is a bowler capable of completely taking the pitch out of the equation.
Plenty of selection headaches for India
Like the second Test, India will be without the services of both Kohli and Rahul in Rajkot. However, the absence of Shreyas Iyer, coupled with the availability of Ravindra Jadeja, is set to complicate team selection for the hosts.
Read: Sarfaraz's debut almost confirmed, but will India move out of their two-pacer ploy?
As it stands, a Test debut for Sarfaraz Khan looks imminent. However, Sarfaraz coming into the side would mean one of two things: Jadeja replacing Kuldeep Yadav, or India going in with four spinners (with Jadeja taking the spot of Mukesh Kumar).
Considering both scenarios would disrupt the team balance a bit, don’t be surprised if India opt to play Jadeja in place of Iyer, and do a simple Mukesh-Siraj swap.
The hosts will also have to choose between KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel, and early indications are that Jurel will make his Test debut. Jurel will likely be an upgrade on Bharat on the batting front, but Bharat’s glovework might just force India to retain the Andra batter in the XI.
Ground Details
Only two Tests have been played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, and the last of those two came back in 2018.
Historically, Rajkot has been a ‘bat first’ venue with the pitch starting off flat and then slowly starting to take turn. Both the Tests played at this venue saw the teams batting first piling 500+ runs in the first innings.
The pattern has been the same in recent times too, with teams batting first winning three of the last four Ranji Trophy matches at the venue.
In first-class games since 2022, the effectiveness of pace and spin has pretty much been the same. While pacers have averaged 32.8 and have struck every 58 balls, spinners have averaged 31.9 and have struck every 61 balls.
These are overall figures, but the average of spinners reduces to 21.5 in the third and fourth innings.
So the blueprint for victory is clear: bat first, bat long and then let your spinners do the damage late in the game.
Tactical Nous
> On his Test debut in Vizag, Rajat Patidar looked assured against most bowlers, but had a hard time facing Rehan Ahmed. The young leggie managed to dismiss Patidar in both innings, and conceded only 13 runs off the 28 balls he bowled to the Madhya Pradesh batter. Expect Stokes to turn to Rehan pretty early in Patidar’s innings, to play with the batter’s mind.
> So far in this series, Zak Crawley has not been dismissed by Bumrah (47 runs off 92 balls) and a big reason for the same has been how well England opener has left the pacer. He’s left 28.3% of the balls he’s faced vs Bumrah, by some distance the highest figure among all English batters who have faced 15+ balls of Bumrah in this series.
Considering this, Bumrah might just look to bowl tighter, straighter lines against the right-hander in Rajkot, forcing him to play at the ball more.
> Shubman Gill vs James Anderson will continue to be a battle to watch out for. Gill averages just 9.5 vs Anderson in Tests (5 dismissals in 8 innings) and was dismissed by the veteran in the first innings of the second Test. England will attack Gill with Anderson early in Rajkot.
Team news
England have already announced their XI, and have opted to go with two pacers: Mark Wood comes in place of Shoaib Bashir.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson
With Kuldeep unlikely to head out, expect India to bring in Jadeja in place of either Shreyas Iyer or Mukesh Kumar. Jurel might also get handed his Test debut.
India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja / Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, Srikar Bharat / Dhruv Jurel (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar / Mohammed Siraj
