At Lord’s, India should get the selection right

In Tests outside Asia under Virat Kohli, the team has failed to pick the perfect 11

As India bids to level the Test series against England at Lord’s on Thursday, it will need to get the team selection just right. Time and again in Tests outside Asia under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, India has missed a trick in terms of picking the perfect eleven. It is tempting to speculate that had that not happened, this Indian team would have had more success on demanding away tours. Earlier this year in South Africa, Kohli picked Rohit Sharma ahead of the technically proficient Ajinkya Rahane in the first two Tests. Sharma failed in both Tests; India missed the technical solidity required against the moving ball, and lost both matches. It was not merely in the batting department. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s most successful bowler in the first Test at Cape Town, was dropped for the second. Rahane was finally chosen for the third Test, as was Kumar. India won the final Test. But the series had already been squandered. Had the selection been less misguided, a 1-2 series loss could well have turned out to be a historic 2-1 series win.

In the first Test of the ongoing series, too, we have seen baffling selections. Shikhar Dhawan played in the match. Kohli is obsessed with form going in to a game. Dhawan’s scores in the tour match against Essex that preceded the Test? Zero, and zero in the two innings. Cheteshwar Pujara, with a great deal of experience of playing in county cricket, was ignored. Kohli scored 200 runs over two innings in the Edgbaston Test. The other ten batsmen managed 214 between them. India needed just one more solid batting partnership to snatch the Test from England. It did not get that. So fine are these margins.

India did not, as was expected, play two spinners in Edgbaston. At Lord’s, with the surface baking in the London summer sun, two spinners may be just the ticket. In 36 Tests as captain, Kohli has never retained a playing eleven. It’s time to maintain the record, and usher in changes that’ll give India an edge.