Birmingham [UK], July 2 (ANI): Former left-arm spinner Monty Panesar believes India’s biggest shortcoming is their ineffectiveness to scalp 20 wickets in a Test match, a factor which could hinder them in the second contest against England in Birmingham.
India fell flat in the series opener after falling short in their endeavours to defend a 371-run target at Headingley last week, despite enjoying the services of the world number one, Jasprit Bumrah. England gunned down their second-highest successful chase without breaking a sweat to race to a 1-0 lead.
The beleaguered tourists lined up without their ace in the hole in the second contest, Panesar believes India would need to figure out a way to scythe 20 scalps to stand triumphant for the first time in Birmingham.
“I think they will have to rest a little. Not everyone can win a Test match. I think India will have to think that we can win even without Bumrah. And they have never won at Edgbaston. So even if they win, it is a very historic thing,” Panesar told ANI.
“India will have to think that, forget the history, playing in a test match, 20 wickets is the biggest shortcoming of India. India needs 20 wickets. How will they take it? What will they do? What is the strategy? It is up to Shubham Gill,” he added.
In Bumrah’s absence, Akash Deep was brought in to fill the void as India put in the hard yards to restore parity in the gruelling affair. India fans would have to wait to see how Akash fairs under Edgbaston’s conditions after the coin spun in favour of England captain Ben Stokes yet again, who opted to bowl first.
Among the host of changes for the second Test, India replaced Shardul Thakur with young Nitish Kumar Reddy. However, the most eye-catching change turned out to be Washington Sundar, a spin-bowling all-rounder coming in for Sai Sudharsan, who made his debut at number three at Headingley.
India captain Shubman Gill offered a sneak peek into the blueprint that India will try to follow for the next four days in pursuit of a series-levelling victory. During the toss, Gill explained that Bumrah’s absence stems from their approach to managing his workload. While the inclusion of all-rounders stems from their twin tail-end collapses in the series opener.
“No Bumrah. Just to manage his workload. We did get a good break, and this is an important match for us. But the third Test being at Lord’s, we think there’ll be more in that pitch, so we’ll use him there. We were tempted to play Kuldeep, but looking at the last match, our lower order didn’t do well, so we decided to add some depth to the batting,” Gil said.
India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna. (ANI)
