India will begin their home season on September 19 with the two-match Test series against Bangladesh. With the visitors leaving the field after a historic series win against Pakistan, this encounter has assumed a lot of importance. Even India are not taking Najmul Hossain Shanto and his men lightly despite boasting a brilliant home record over the last decade. Even as the team trains hard in Chennai, the captain Rohit Sharma and management faces a selection dilemma.
jasprit bumrahMohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja The players choose themselves for the starting XI, but the big question is who will fill the fifth bowler’s spot. Previously, the battle was only between Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav Team India has played with three fast bowlers at home in most matches. In fact, only once, in the 2019 Kolkata Test against Bangladesh, did India load up its starting XI with three fast bowlers.
According to a report by ESPNCricinfo, Chennai is expected to have a red-dirt pitch, which means there will be quality bounce and carry for the fast bowlers. While spin will definitely come into play as the Test match progresses, the fast bowlers are likely to pose a danger throughout the match and the conditions will also see reverse swing come into play.
Apart from Axar and Kuldeep, the other two fast bowlers in the team, Akash Deep and Yash Dayal, also have chances of coming into the playing XI. The last time India played on a purely red-ground pitch against England in 2021, they did not break until the very end of the match and having to bat fourth, India ended up losing the game.
However, three years later, the Chepauk surface has changed completely as three of the nine playing pitches are made of red dirt brought from Mumbai. The same dirt is used at the Wankhede Stadium, which is known to generate real bounce and help both fast bowlers and pacers. For the same reason, the Indian players also trained on an exclusively red dirt pitch on Monday (September 16). Therefore, it remains to be seen whether India will opt for Akash Deep or Yash Dayal as their third fast-pacer or will back Bumrah and Siraj to get the job done by picking three fast bowlers.
India’s squad for first Test against Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL RahulSarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.
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