Anjum Chopra on Rohit Sharma’s absence: “There could be some inexperience at the top of the order”
Former India women’s captain Anjum Chopra has admitted that Team India might have to deal with some experience at the top of the order in the first Test against Bangladesh due to Rohit Sharma’s injury. She, however, added that the visitors have enough experience in their line-up to overcome the impact of their captain’s absence.
Rohit has been ruled out of the first Test in Chattogram, which begins on Wednesday, December 14. He injured his thumb while fielding during the second ODI against Bangladesh and subsequently missed the final game.
In the captain’s absence, young batter Shubman Gill is likely to open the innings alongside stand-in skipper KL Rahul. Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran has also been added to the Indian Test squad as cover for Rohit.
While discussing India’s options for the first Test, Chopra said on her YouTube channel:
“There could be some inexperience at the top of the order. Skipper Rohit Sharma will be missing, but most of the other players are there - be it KL Rahul, (Cheteshwar) Pujara, or even (Rishabh) Pant.
India have a settled batting line-up, so I don’t see many changes. I also don’t see many new things happening.”
While Gill has played 11 Tests for India, Easwaran impressed while leading the India A squad against Bangladesh A recently.
@BCCI @imVkohli @klrahul @RishabhPant17 @ShubmanGill Missing my champ badly😔😔
Speedy recovery our champ our Hitman 🤞❣️ https://t.co/PCQ8HWmTlV
Sharing her thoughts on India’s bowling combination, Chopra opined that the visitors are likely to go with three seamers and two spinners in Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin. Chopra stated:
“India have a spin-dominant bowling line-up, so they would want to go in with both Axar and Ashwin. I don’t see them playing four seamers. They would like to go in with three seamers and two spinners. It would be interesting to see who the three seamers would be.”
Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj, and Shardul Thakur are India’s pace bowling options for the Test series against Bangladesh.
“Will be difficult to fit all of them in the XI” - Chopra backs India to stick to tried and tested bowlers
While Saini and Unadkat have been recalled to the Indian team, Chopra reckons that India will not experiment much with their bowling and will stick to those who have delivered the goods lately. She elaborated:
“Naveep Saini has been recalled, Jaydev Unadkat has also been picked. There is Abhimanyu Easwaran and Saurabh Kumar as well. Apart from Unadkat, who has flown in from India, the others were playing for India A against Bangladesh A.
“Abhimanyu batted well as captain and Saini had a good spell, while Saurabh also claimed a six-fer. But I feel it will be difficult to fit all of them in the XI for the first Test.”
Covering all bases, #TeamIndia trained in Chattogram ahead of our 1st Test against Bangladesh.
Snapshots from our training session 📸📸
#BANvIND https://t.co/xh6l9rdhYu
Saini last played a Test match for India in January 2021, while Unadkat hasn’t represented the country in red-ball cricket since his debut in December 2010.