After suffering a defeat in Leeds, India has a big point to prove in Kennington Oval Cricket Stadium. But the history doesn’t favor India as for the last 50 years India has not won a single Test Match in Oval. But there are too many questions that have been asked about team 11 after the loss and even I have discussed in my previous cricket blog. So, let’s forget about the last match because there are 2 matches left and the series is on level at 1-1 and I want to be optimistic and want to believe that this team has done in the past and they will bounce back from this too.
Oval is one of the stadiums in England which helps spin bowlers and the meta of the pitch is that win the toss here and bat first because on the first day and second day the pitch is better for batsmen and on the 4th and 5th day the spinners always get a sharp turn. This pitch behaves a bit like Indian wickets where starting days of the match are the best days to bat on but as days pass the pitch becomes spinner-friendly. So, I think this is now or never for R. Ashwin and India should play him. He is the world best off-spinner at the moment and the kind of form Ashwin is in he has to play regardless of the situation or pitch and he recently played a county match in Oval during the break after WTC final and he took 6 wickets in an innings and even in WTC the pitch which had nothing for spinners he still managed to take 2 wickets in each inning. And seeing England have 5 left-handers and statistics says Ashwin got Root number in Test matches so he will be a threat to a Root too. And another change which I like to see or everyone is talking about is playing 6th batsmen. I was reading many legends comments and they all want to play Suryakumar Yadav but I feel Vihari is a perfect batsman for 6th number, technically he is strong and during IPL season he played here county cricket so the experience which he got here will come in handy and after seeing his innings in Australia, if India wants to play a batsman on Number 6 then he should be Hanuma Vihari and he can give some overs too if the team needs him. But I feel India will not go with 6 batsmen and Rishabh Pant will play on Number 7, & they will back their batting and will not change anything in the batting line-up. But they should incorporate Ashwin in place of Ishant Sharma and if Jadeja is not fit because he got some knee issues in the last match so then play Shardul Thakur. I personally highly rate him because of his traditional swing bowling and he can contribute from the bat also.
The probable starting XI can be Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul, Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Shardul (If Jadeja is injured), Ashwin, Bumrah, Shami, and Siraj.
I hope you like my blog, you can share your opinions with me in the comment section and we can discuss cricket or other sports.
Thank You
Sportsoff 