Perth preparations will continue to keep Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav out of India’s Playing XI. After the spinners failed to get a chance against Bangladesh, they’ll miss out in Bengaluru against New Zealand as well. You don’t take your opponents lightly in Test cricket, but that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare for something difficult that’s about to come.
Pitch, Pacers & Australia Tests
Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir had decided against Bangladesh that they’ll play on pace-friendly surfaces that’ll help the Indian fast bowlers to be ready for the India vs Australia Test series rather than bring the spinners into the game. Playing at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium against Tom Latham’s New Zealand, we can once again expect a 3-man pace attack alongside 2 spin all-rounders.
You can expect true bounce in Bengaluru. This means that pacers would enjoy bowling here, especially with the new ball. On the Indian management’s request, we saw a generally spin-friendly Chennai pitch turned into a pacer paradise. We can expect something similar at Chinnaswamy as well.
The last Test match played here (2022) also saw pacers be a consistent threat despite spinners having a better time. Jasprit Bumrah alone took 8 wickets in the match against Sri Lanka, and Mohammed Shami chipped in with two wickets himself. One can’t also forget that Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep both play at the Chinnaswamy Stadium during the IPL and have a good grasp of how the pitch behaves.
Sarfaraz Khan’s form
Barring the two senior batters, everyone in the Indian lineup got runs against Bangladesh. Rohit Sharma got just 42 runs in 4 innings, while Virat Kohli scored 99. Only Sarfaraz Khan has the claim to enter the XI. He’s been toiling hard in domestic cricket, scoring heaps of runs, but there isn’t an opening. Sarfaraz replaced KL Rahul in the England Test series, but now that Rahul is back and performing, he just doesn’t fit in the XI.
Predicted India Playing XI for 2nd Test vs Bangladesh
Rohit Sharma (c),Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
Bench: Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel
