Follow UsThe England cricket team on June 18 (Wednesday) announced their playing 11 for the first Test against India, starting June 20 (Friday) at The Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds, Yorkshire.
Thus, the onus now falls upon the Indian side to pick their playing 11 accordingly, and it would be interesting to see how they shape up after three legends of the game - Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma - have retired from the format.
Shubman Gill will have his first test as captain in selecting a formidable playing 11 to make sure that his team is not halted in the first hurdle. He will have to make the choice between playing Jasprit Bumrah in the first Test itself and also between Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan as to who should be picked.
The dilemma doesn’t end there, as India would also have to pick their bowling attack based on the conditions, which are expected to be mostly pace-friendly. However, records suggest spinners have also done well in Leeds, historically. So will Kuldeep Yadav get a go ahead of the third seamer?
All these questions must be answered. The fact that Harshit Rana was asked to stay back and included in India’s squad for the first Test, suggests that he might be playing and Bumrah might not play. In that case, the third pacer would be one of Prasidh Krishna or nArshdeep Singh.
If the third pacer is not played and Kuldeep is, then India will have two spinners with Ravindra Jadeja being the spin-bowling all-rounder. In that case, Shardul Thakur, a proper pacer, instead of Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is more of a batting all-rounder, might be picked as the third seamer.
What will and will not be India’s playing 11 will be discovered on match day for sure, but before that, here’s what it would probably look like.
India’s Probable Playing 11 for 1st Test vs England at Hedingley
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav/ Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Players who might miss out: Akash Deep, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana