Fifty years ago, India had won their maiden Test series on English soil at The Oval. Leg-spinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar did the star turn with 6/38 in the second innings, which still remains the best performance by an Indian bowler at the venue.
As India go into the fourth Test with the current series tied at 1-1, there is still uncertainty over the inclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin, currently the world’s best spinner. He hasn’t played in the previous three matches with Ravindra Jadeja being the lone spinner in the Indian XI.
The left-arm all-rounder has two wickets from his 76 overs in the three Tests and it is unlikely that he will be sidelined because the team management trusts his batting more than Ashwin’s.
Sources told The Telegraph that the wicket has a brown look but could help the pacers because of its bounce and carry. That has forced the think-tank to rework their strategies and toy with the policy of going in with four pacers.
Bowling coach Bharat Arun felt that the hosts were “wary of Ashwin’s abilities” and weren’t expecting pitches which assist spinners.
It is more or less decided that Ishant Sharma will be rested. It will be a toss-up between Shardul Thakur and Ashwin after having another close look at the wicket on Thursday morning.
As a “precautionary inclusion” young fast bowler Prasidh Krishna was added to the squad. Arun made it clear that he has been included “mainly considering all the workload management issues”.
Jasprit Bumrah, India’s most successful bowler with 14 wickets, has the most number of overs too with 108, followed closely by Mohammed Siraj, who has bowled 100.5 overs. Mohammed Shami has 96.5 overs while Ishant has 56.
But it’s unthinkable that captain Virat Kohli will dare to go into the Test without any of his three frontline bowlers — Bumrah, Shami and Siraj.
Don’t expect any other change in the Indian line-up as the batting order will remain the same.
KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant had hammered centuries in a losing cause during their 2018 appearance at The Oval and it remains to be seen if they can replicate their performance to turn around the team’s fortunes this time.
