After winning the historic Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, Team India is very much confident for their upcoming matches.
The upcoming 2021 Home Test series vs England is going to be extremely important for Team India if they have to stay alive in the ICC World Test Championship. Team India need to win 2 of their upcoming 4 matches. The 1st of 4 test matches wil start from February 5 at Chennai.
BCCI already announced the squad for 1st two test matches.
India squad for 1st 2 test matches against England: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma, Shubmann Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha ( wk) , Hardik pandya, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Chandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar , Axar Patel.
Basically India plays with 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers in the subcontinental countries. As per this calculation, Rohit Sharma and Shubmann Gill, who performed very well in Border Gavaskar Trophy, will be open the innings. Mayank Agarwal is chosen as their backup. At no 3 is allotted for the Present wall of team India Pujara . No 4 and is allotted for the Captain Virat Kohli who missed last 3 matches of Border Gavaskar trophy due to his parental leave and vice captain Ajinkya Rahane is at no 5.
As a wicket keeper Batsman obviously Rishabh Pant is the 1st choice of the team management remembering his significant role in India’s win but his keeping quality is not as expected. He dropped plenty of catches in Australia and he should improve his wicket keeping skill because in subcontinental field as ball turns and there is obviously need a good wicket keeper. other hand the wicket keeping skill of Wriddhiman Saha is pretty much good but batting is very poor.
Hanuma Vihari will missed this series due to his hamstring injury and KL Rahul replaced him. Jadeja will also miss this series for his finger injury. Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel,who performed very impressive in the domestic cricket are chosen at that place.
For the pace bowling line up selectors chose Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma ,Shardul Thakur and Md. Siraj to take the responsibility to dismiss Root and his boys. Ishant sharma missed the Australia tour but now he is full fit but Bhubaneswar kumar and Md. Shami is not fit till now. Jasprit Bumrah likely to debut in the home test match . Shardul Thakur and Md.siraj performed exceptionally well and as a result they both are chosen to play against Joe Root and co.
For the spin department Ravi Chandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar are included in the team. Sundar who made debut in the last match in replace of Jadeja against Australia, performed exceptionally good in bowling as well as batting. His IPL performance is also notable.
Kuldeep Yadav may got chance due the spinning track of Chepauk. But Washington Sundar likely to play the 1st match because team India will also get few runs from him.
Team India also get the advantage of the absence of Bairstow and Sam Curran who are very good at subcontinental conditions.
Probable playing XI for team India(Chennai):
Rohit Sharma, Subhmann Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C)Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravi Chandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Md. Siraj