IND vs ENG: Spin bowling to play major role in Edgbaston Test? Here's what Ex-AUS captain has to say
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "IND vs ENG: Spin bowling to play major role in Edgbaston Test? Here's what Ex-AUS captain has to say")
IND vs ENG: EX-AUS captain suggests winning mantra to India for Edgbaston Test Photograph: (Others)
Aware of Bumrah’s loneliness at the top, the former Aussie captain suggested the remaining Indian pacers pull their socks up and find new ways of picking wickets.
India conceded a golden chance to draw first blood in the series opener against England in Leeds. Despite playing their best XI, including the first-team pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah, Team India failed to pick 20 wickets across two innings, as England chased 371 with five wickets remaining. Trailing in the five-match series, the visitors are plotting a comeback in Edgbaston - the venue for the second Test, with former Australian captain Michael Clarke coming to their aid. Offering advice to Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir, Clarke suggested one change to the playing XI, and it’s not a seamer.
While Bumrah returned with his record-breaking 12th away five-for in the first innings, he failed to make a similar impact in the second. In the headlines for his hostile spells across both innings, Bumrah did not get enough support from the other end on the last day. Even though Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur were among the wickets, Mohammed Siraj looked like a pale shadow of himself, let alone considering spinner Ravindra Jadeja’s contribution with the ball.
With the second Test starting next Wednesday (Jul 2) in Birmingham, Team India has a lot of time at hand to work on their best XI, and Clarke has thrown an ‘out of the box’ advice for them to prevail in their efforts. Instead of backing any of the three seamers waiting in the wings, Clarke urged the leadership to include wicket-taker Kuldeep Yadav in the XI for the second Test, calling it a ‘no-brainer’.
"Bowling-wise, I do not want to be hard on any individual, but I think they’ve got to play Kuldeep Yadav. I think it is an absolute no-brainer. I think he’s a wicket-taker and would have offered a lot more than what he saw the attack do in this Test," Clarke said on the Beyond23 Podcast.
“India have done this for a while. They care so much about extra batting or stacking the batting deep, and they are willing to risk picking the number one spinner to do that. I think to win in England, you’ve got to look to pick 20 wickets," he continued.
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‘Others must step up’
Aware of Bumrah’s loneliness at the top, the former Aussie captain suggested the remaining Indian pacers pull their socks up and find new ways of picking wickets.
“Bumrah’s a star, he’s leading that attack. But the other three pacers, yes, at stages bowled well, but they need to find more ways of taking wickets, more options and their execution has probably got to be better," Clarke said
Also, speaking on Jadeja’s missed chance of making the most out of the five-day wicket (in Leeds), Clarke said, “Jadeja didn’t have the impact that I thought he might have. Particularly in the second innings, I thought there was a lot of rough to the left-hander. I thought he bowled a little bit straight.”
