new delhi: India head coach Gautam Gambhir defended captain Shubman Gill’s decision to under bowl Shardul Thakur in the series opener against England but it would be tough to justify his selection in the second Test beginning on July 2.
In his first Test since December 2023, Shardul was under-utilised in the pace department and was rather underwhelming with the bat, totalling five off 20 balls across two innings.
Questions were raised about his presence in the playing XI ahead of a specialist bowler when he rolled his arm over for six overs in the first innings before bowling 10 in the second.
Like he often does, Shardul did pick a couple of wickets out of nowhere to raise hopes of an Indian comeback on Day 5 but the bite in his bowling was missing. He alongside the likes of Prasidh Krishna offered too many loose balls, lacking consistency to test the opposition batters.
Experts cried out for Kuldeep Yadav’s inclusion in the series opener and now he is most likely to replace Shardul with the surface expected to aid the spinners in Birmingham..
“Kuldeep needs to be there. There is no point playing with four pacers. Either of Shardul or Prasidh can make way for him,” former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar said.
There is a tendency to play with four pace options in England but with dry conditions expected for the majority of the English summer, there is a case of playing Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja in the same XI.
“Kuldeep Yadav has to come back. I’m sorry to say, but Shardul Thakur has to go out,” former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar said. “That is one change India will have to make. As for Nitish Kumar Reddy -- I backed him for the first Test purely based on what
he did in Australia.”