Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli and coach Gautam Gambhir share a lighter moment during a training session ahead of the second Test in Pune.
Credit: PTI Photo
Pune: Indian cricket is the country’s favourite pastime. Within that ecosystem, most patrons have an almost primal fetish for debating player selection, combination calls, and nuanced matters. This propensity to deconstruct minor details is further exacerbated when the team loses.
As you can imagine, barbs disguised as educated opinions have arrived in haste since India lost the opening Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru - their first defeat against this opponent in thirty-six years.
While coach Gautam Gambhir maintains that none of those opinions - on social media or otherwise - matters to those within the system, his true personality has always been geared towards sticking it to the naysayers.
So, whether he admits it or not, Gambhir and his wards will look to put an end to the whirlpool of caustic commentary by levelling the odds at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium, the venue for the second Test.
For that though, they need to get wits about them and figure out a functional future course without getting wrapped up in narratives of old.
That brings us to KL Rahul. A string of poor performances, interspersed with some meaty innings, and the presence of promising youth, has left him vulnerable. Naturally, Gambhir backed him in the pre-match press conference, but would the management take the risk of backing him when they have their backs against the wall?
The answers shall come soon enough, but as it stands, a 'fully fit' Shubman Gill will walk into the team, while Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan remain in limbo - at least to our knowledge - until the morning of the match.
A similar selection dilemma extends to the bowling unit because Mohammed Siraj hasn’t looked his best in a while and India have an in-form Akash Deep waiting to get a crack.
While a straight swap is possible in that regard, India’s third spinner has yet to pick himself.
On a pitch which is going to turn by the end of day one, should the sun remain as prickly as it was for most of Wednesday, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will feel entitled to wickets.
But India will rely on a third spinner to impress on their strength, and therein lies the question of whether Kuldeep Yadav will get to play his second Test in succession or if Washington Sundar, who was called on to join the squad after Bengaluru, gets a look in.
Washington isn’t the type to dramatic turn, but since the Kiwis are likely to play as many as five left-handers, he might be a decent option to keep things in check.
Also, since New Zealand’s batters have shown an acute understanding of using their feet to tweakers, Washington's white-ball pace of bowling might just force Kiwi batters to stay in the crease, vastly increasing the possibility of leg-before-wickets and edges to men around the bat.
While the three-spinner strategy backfired for India in Bengaluru, they won’t have much of a choice here. New Zealand, however, will consider injecting another full-time spinner into the mix.
In Bengaluru, they played Ajaz Patel as the full-time spinner while Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra provided moderate relief. But the conditions in the previous Test allowed New Zealand to flex their pace where Tim Southee, Matt Henry and William O’Rourke bagged 17 wickets between them in two innings.
Here, that won’t be the case. Thereby, Mitchell Santner is likely to come in for one of the seamers, and as tough as the decision might be, they will want to consider leaving out Southee.
In that sense, both sides have fascinating permutations and combinations to consider over the next twenty-four hours. As do we.