Probable Playing Elevens For India vs. England's Second Test: Will Rohit Sharma Support Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar For A Potential Rank Turner At Vizag?
Second Test between IND and ENG: The match in Visakhapatnam on February 9 will be the main center of attention because it will significantly affect both teams' starting lineups.
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Prior to the start of the second Test match between India and England in Visakhapatnam on February 2, skipper Rohit Sharma must make important decisions. The batting order is extremely thin with Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Ravindra Jadeja out due to injury, and Virat Kohli not playing. Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar are two players who have amassed a ton of runs in domestic cricket; can Rohit make the bold decision to play one or both of them in this pivotal match?
He has proven batters who are currently short on runs, and he also has inexperienced but talented batters. This is not a fun headache, and it will be interesting to hear Rohit Sharma's thoughts on the potential starting eleven when he attends the day before the game at the pre-match news conference.
In Test cricket, Gill and Iyer have not scored many runs in a while. History indicates that skipper Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid prefer to cover most of the bases safely and take calculated modest chances. Among these bases is batting. Based on what Vikram Rathour, the batting coach, said, either of them might be selected for the Test. If only one of Sarfaraz and Patidar must play, he remarked, it will be difficult to decide who should play, but Dravid and Rohit have the last say. Rathour said that he is confident his hitters who are having trouble would find a way to break out of their funk.
If Sarfaraz or Patidar play, it's likely that Gill will be replaced because his hard hands are making it difficult for him to handle spin bowling. Shreyas Iyer is a talented spin bowler, and Visakhapatnam is predicted to be a rank turner. It is possible that the management would prefer that Iyer bat a bit higher at No. 3, with Sarfaraz or Patidar at No. 4. While KS Bharat might stay in his position, Washington Sundar might take Jadeja's spot because playing Dhruv Jurel would prove to be too risky.
If the pitch in Vizag proves to be a turner, England's head coach, Brendon McCullum, has stated that his team is prepared to launch an all-spin bowling attack. They won't think twice about benching Mark Wood, their lone pacer from the first Test, in favour of off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who may make his Test debut in the second.
India's likely eleven players are: KS Bharat, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan/Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rohit Sharma (captain).
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood/Shoaib Bashir, Jack Leach are the probable England playing eleven.
