Jolted India contend with injuries and Bazball in bid to level Test series

India’s proud home record of having won 16 successive home Test series dating back to 2012 is not quite in danger, but losing to England in Hyderabad and now without the services of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul has left the hosts with several headaches heading into the second match in Visakhapatnam.

India really had no business losing to Ben Stokes’ team after taking a lead of 190, but familiar batting frailties against spin, particularly the unknown kind, came to the fore on the fourth day in Hyderabad. The debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley, having gone for 131 runs in India’s first innings, triggered another embarrassing capitulation with seven wickets on Sunday as India were dismissed for 202 when set a target of 231.

This sends India into the Visakhapatnam Test match with serious issues to contend with, namely, how to cope with Bazball without their two leading run-getters from the last match. Jadeja and Rahul scored 87 and 86 respectively during India’s first innings, and the former chipped in with five wickets as well.

We have seen in the past that whenever Jadeja has been injured, the Test team’s balance has been disturbed and once again, the management will have to figure out how to replace the invaluable allrounder. One option is to make a direct replacement with Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist spinner who has routinely struggled to make India’s 11 when Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel have played. Kuldeep is a very valuable option because of what he offers with his variety and experience, and the expected slow nature of the surface for this Test match.

But then how does India counter for the lack of all-round skill given that Kuldeep is not known for his batting? One of the three players drafted in for this Test is the allrounder Washington Sundar, who while not as effective with the ball, does have scores of 85 not out and 96 not out in his two past Test matches at home. Washington is a more than capable batter, as well as a left-hander like Jadeja, and his presence would lengthen India’s batting order.

If there is a concern around Washington, it is how Rohit would use Washington as a bowler behind Ashwin, Axar and Kuldeep, should all four end up playing. Thus the likelier option for India is to replace Jadeja and Rahul with Kuldeep and another batsman, which would mean a Test debut for one of Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan.

Both uncapped batters have recent form with India A on their side, including big hundreds each, and plenty of domestic experience. Which of Patidar or Sarfaraz plays will depend on where India plan to bat them. If it is the number four slot the management expects to fill, given that is where Rahul batted in the first Test, then Patidar would be the likelier option given he has batted there for Madhya Pradesh and India A. However, if India promote Shreyas Iyer to four, then the vacancy would be at number five, which is where Sarfaraz has primarily batted while stacking up a mountain of runs for Mumbai, and where he has batted for India A.

The last dilemma for India, and one which will in all probability be taken based on the nature of the pitch in Visakhapatnam, is whether to play a second pace bowler.. On the basis of his performance in Hyderabad, where he bowled just 11 overs in the whole match, Mohammed Siraj is the weak link in India’s line-up.

Furthermore, if the track is expected to be slow and offer more assistance to the spinners, do India even need a second pacer? If one were to look back to last year’s Border Gavaskar Trophy, Siraj was only called on to bowl one over across three of Australia’s second innings, which strongly indicates that India will not use a second pacer if they expect a similar surface in the next match.

In this scenario, the team management could look to add more batting depth and play Kuldeep, Washington and one of Patidar or Sarfaraz. In short, once again, with Jadeja ruled out, India will have trouble balancing their side.