With England captain Ben Stokes dominated out of the Oval Take a look at, Staff India have a good probability to degree the collection at 2-2.
Gautam Gambhir’s tactics have been questioned. With a young captain leading the Indian team, it falls upon the coach to guide him and take the onus when it comes to team selection and on-field decisions. The overwhelming sentiment after four matches in England seems to be that Gambhir hasn’t done his job adequately.
Batting-depth rules
It started with Shardul Thakur’s selection at Headingley. The move backfired horribly. Yet at Old Trafford, Shardul played again. Why? Well, Gambhir believes in batting depth. Having found success in white-ball cricket, the Indian head coach seems hell-bent on applying the same formula in Test cricket.
India’s fourth pacer, either Shardul or Nitish Reddy, has bowled just 55 overs in 4 matches. Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, who have played 2 matches each, have bowled more overs. On paper, India seems to be going with 6 bowling options, but in reality, it’s just 3 bowlers pulling the weight.
In Manchester, Anshul Kamboj and Shardul bowled just 29 overs from the total of 157.1 that England played. Washington Sundar wasn’t given the ball until the 69th over. Shubman Gill can be blamed but he virtually has no experience of being a Test captain.
The question is, what’s Gambhir doing? For all the talk of workload management, Jasprit Bumrah has bowled almost 40 overs per game. For Mohammed Siraj, that number is 35, and he’s played all four matches. Instead of using the main bowlers as weapons, Gambhir has been using them as stock bowlers.
It makes no sense that Bumrah was bowling with the second new ball in Manchester over Shardul or Kamboj. His speeds had dropped, and he even hurt his ankle. Yet, it was either the spinners or the two main pacers who bowled.
And now comes the tough bit. Bumrah, in all likelihood, won’t be playing at the Oval. “We will take a decision tomorrow. The wicket looks very green, so let’s see,” is what Gill said when asked about Bumrah playing the fifth Test. But his quota of three matches is over. At this point, it’ll be very unwise to play him.
Will Gambhir show aggression in selection?
This is where Gambhir will be tested. Only one bowler comes close to Bumrah’s wicket-taking ability and the x-factor he has. And that’s Kuldeep Yadav. The wrist spinner hasn’t been given a chance yet. That’s despite three of the four surfaces being flat. Gill has hinted that Kuldeep may not play at the Oval either.
With the series on the line, it’s time to take a risk. Forget about the batting depth. Play Kuldeep as the third spinner. In June, in a match between Surrey and Durham, 1444 runs were scored for the loss of just 19 wickets in 14 days. That’s 76 runs per wicket. On a flat deck like that, you need someone who can deceive the batters in the air. Someone whose action is difficult to read.
Kuldeep may not perform as expected, but if Bumrah doesn’t play, he’s India’s best bet for wickets. The question is, will Gambhir be aggressive in his selections just like he is in press conferences?
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