India’s Test squad talking points: Bowling line-up, Rohit’s exclusion, Karthik and Pant’s chance

With the white-ball formalities completed on the tour, India now await the massive challenge that is a five-Test match series in England. Virat Kohli’s final frontier, if you will.

Despite the World Cup looming large, it almost felt as if the Indian squad was viewing the six limited overs matches before the Test series as a chance to get used to conditions in England during the Test series. From what Kohli and Ravi Shastri said before leaving for the English shores, it was evident that the focus of this tour was going to be achieving success in the longest format.

And with that in mind, the announcement of the Test squad was always going to generate a lot of interest. With the selectors naming 18 players in the squad for the first three Tests, here are the changes to the team composition from the team named for the South Africa series earlier this year, which India lost 1-2.

There sure are a few major talking points that have emerged...

Bowling concerns

From the three-match series in South Africa, the one undoubted positive to emerge was India’s bowling line-up. Three matches, six innings, 60 wickets taken. Mission accomplished (kind of).

While they were guilty of letting South Africa batsmen get away with poor phases on a few occasions before reeling them back in, the Indian bowlers largely performed admirably. Jasprit Bumrah repaid his captain’s faith by getting better with every innings he bowled. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, when not dropped, showed why he is rated so highly as a red-ball bowler. R Ashwin played a good support role as did Hardik Pandya and Ishant Sharma. And Mohammed Shami, despite being the most inconsistent among the bowlers, ended up as India’s leading wicket-taker.

And suddenly, it looked like India have a seam bowling line-up that could handle anything that came their way.

But, going in to the Test series against England, there are a fair few concerns. For starters, Shami has a had forgettable time on the cricket field and off it, ever since that South Africa tour. Personal issues, accidents, fitness concerns, lack of form – all saw him miss out on a place to play against Afghanistan. Word is that he has now recovered his fitness, but is he going to be the spearhead of this pace attack after such an uncertain period?

Bumrah’s situation is unfortunate, that an injury he picked up in Ireland should turn out to be serious enough to effectively rule him out till the second Test. While one cannot account for such freak occurrences, Kumar’s selection in the third ODI appears even more bizarre now, given Kohli’s reasoning. While he was already suffering from a back trouble, the logic to pick him so that he gets game time was convoluted. He is not new to English conditions, there is a four-day game coming up and a bit of a break as well. As it turned out, he aggravated the back issue and doesn’t find a place in the 18-man squad. That is a massive blow for India, and one that could have been avoided.

And because of all this, India are in a situation where Ishant and Umesh Yadav are likely to start the first Test as Kohli’s best bets – and both of them were back-up options in South Africa. Certainly not an ideal way to start the series.

The wicket-keeper situation

Wriddhiman Saha and Parthiv Patel were on the plane to South Africa as first and second choice ‘keepers. And both of them are absent from the squad for the first three Tests against England. Things change quickly. While Saha’s injury concerns began in South Africa and continued over to the IPL, Patel’s butter fingers behind the stumps in the two matches he played against Proteas might have ensured he is unlikely to don India’s whites again. Forever the second choice, he has now been eclipsed by Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant, and rightly so.

While Pant is currently with the India A team, playing against England Lions, he has long been ear-marked as the future behind the stumps for India but his wicket-keeping technique has often come under the scanner. And in the longest format, it’s essential to have a safe hands with the ‘keeping gloves on, more than being explosive with the batting gloves on. And now, as an understudy to Karthik, Pant gets a taste of being in the squad for the Tests and will get to hone his skills in arguably the toughest place to keep wickets in the world for an Indian.

Karthik himself has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in 2018. His batting talent has never been in question, but now he seems to have added the temperament to his game that could help him succeed. He might not be as perfect behind the stumps as Saha, but is miles ahead of Patel and should he do well in the first three Tests, Saha – like he has for the most of his career – will be left ruing his wretched luck.

End of the Rohit Sharma experiment?

One look at the replies to BCCI’s tweet announcing the squad will tell you what many fans are thinking: “Where is Rohit Sharma?”

The Mumbai star has his legion of fans on social media who often take up arms when their favourite player gets the axe or worse, be criticised. It’s one of those things about Indian cricket Twitter that will never change as long as Rohit plays the game. But, it was almost inevitable that the on-again, off-again Rohit Sharma experiment in the longest format would run its due course. Well, inevitable but is that the case now? It’s hard to tell.

For many, selecting Rohit over Rahane in the first two Tests in South Africa was an unfathomable risk taken by Kohli, one that back-fired. To not back your best overseas Test batsman (who also happened to be the vice-captain) despite his poor run of form, and to instead select Rohit (who has had his troubles against the moving ball), was a decision that defied common sense. Ravi Shastri’s comments after the Test series, where he spoke about how Rohit struggled, was perhaps the first indication that India were now looking past him. And so they have, by naming Karun Nair – captain of India A in the ongoing UK tour – as Rohit’s replacement.

Nair himself has had a bit of an up-and-down season, but has done alright on the tour so far with two fifty-plus scores in four innings (55 and 93, both coming in the second innings). Whether he is the answer to India’s middle-order dilemma in Tests or is Kohli going to select three openers and push himself and / or Cheteshwar Pujara down the order, remains to be seen. But this much is clear: the selectors did not make the mistake of giving Rohit his place back on the merits of his white-ball form. You never know, that might change once again for the Australia series where the ball doesn’t move as much, but for now, Rohit’s roller-coaster has come to a halt.