Root’s pick
England captain rings the changes for Test
England are ready to make up to five changes today for the third Test against India, including dropping Rory Burns for Zak Crawley as Joe Root ponders the hardest selection decision of his 48 Tests as captain.
Leaving out Burns for Crawley, as The Daily Telegraph understands will happen, is not unexpected. Burns is out of form and replacing him with Crawley gives England a top six with only one left-hander. Jonny Bairstow returns for Dan Lawrence, another straightforward call.
England have settled on four seamers, but the final decision that will be invading Root’s sleep will be deciding between Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes for two pace-bowling spots alongside Ben Stokes and the recalled James Anderson.
It is a week when a captain wants 12 players, not 11, and knows a bit of bad luck with conditions made more unpredictable by the day-night element could make his selection calls look unbalanced and wrong.
At 1-1 with two to play, this week will be pivotal; decision-making could be the difference between winning and losing the series.
A floodlit match suits Anderson and Broad and both are bowling well, even if Broad was anonymous in the last Test. Sources have said they have been the most effective with the pink balls in the nets this week and Stokes said all the seamers had been “licking their lips” in anticipation after seeing the ball move under the lights.
Archer’s pace will be required, otherwise England’s attack will be one-dimensional. It is whether they go with Broad or Woakes. Given the length of the tail, Woakes’s batting will be needed and he is a fine player of spin, but the floodlit Test has been earmarked for weeks as the chance to pick Broad and Anderson together.
The lacquer on the pink ball is fragile, so groundsmen tend to leave a bit of grass on the pitch to help it retain its hardness and colour. That helps quick bowling, which plays to England’s strengths. After 15 floodlit Tests, seamers have taken 354 wickets.
But. But. But. England have not won a Test in India with only one full-time spinner in the side since 1977 (even then they had Tony Greig to back up Derek Underwood) and Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri want to maximise home advantage as they look to qualify for the World Test Championship final. That means a turning pitch, and England have been mugged into picking four seamers and made to regret it on previous tours to India.
Recalling Dom Bess a week after he was dropped would require a young spinner to bounce back very quickly, and for Root to suddenly regain confidence in his ability to bowl tightly when required. He remains more likely to play in the final Test, a day game on the same ground.
Root also has to take into account experience when picking his team. Only Archer, Bairstow and Woakes, with Indian Premier League contracts, have played before in front of a partisan 55,000 home crowd in India.
“The crowd plays a massive role,” Kohli said. “I’ve experienced that as a batsman who walks into the field and 30,000 fans are booing you or clapping when the bowler’s running into bowl. It does play on your head, so we would love for that atmosphere to be present to make life more difficult for the opposition and really get behind the team.
“That’s what playing at home is all about, it’s not only about the conditions on the field, but 50,000 people and their energy behind your team. It does push you in the right direction and it does put a lot more pressure on the opposition.”
India have more bases covered than England. Their seam attack is strong and spinners masterful. They have fewer decisions to make. Jasprit Bumrah returns and the final call is whether to stick with wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav for the last place or pick one of the seamers – Mohammed Siraj or Umesh Yadav.
Even India are stepping into the unknown on a refurbished ground with a newly-laid square. They do not know how conditions will play. The twilight makes batting tricky, the ball harder to see, but it is still light in Ahmedabad at 6.30pm, so the floodlights will take effect later than you might expect.
India were bowled out for 36, England 58 in their last floodlit Tests, but both collapses happened in daylight, just to add another element to the mix.
Local officials have been quoted as being most concerned by the heavy evening dew. It could nullify swing, soften the ball and the dampness could even bind the pitch together, so even if the ball comes on to the bat quicker it is not a given the bowlers will have it all their own way. They plan to rope the outfield twice to help the water disperse.
Instead of looking at the only floodlit Test played in India for guidance, a match against Bangladesh when all 20 wickets that India took fell to seamers, instead a better clue could be the pink-ball match in Dubai four years ago, when both sides said the dew played a big role. Azhar Ali scored a triple century, Pakistan made 579 and 123, while West Indies compiled 357 and 289. And the spinners?
They took 22 of the 31 wickets to fall to bowlers, with leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo returning careerbest figures of eight for 49. It will be a fascinating few days.