WTC Final: 3 tough questions India need to answer
India's journey in the 2019-21 World Test Championship (WTC) so far has been full of highs and lows. After successfully dominating West Indies on their turf and beating South Africa and Bangladesh at home, Virat Kohli's men looked set to march to the WTC Final with ease.
However, a 2-0 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand meant that India had to go Down Under and beat the Aussies in tough conditions. Despite being ravaged by injuries, India became the first team ever to hand Australia back-to-back Test series defeats in their own backyard.
A 3-1 series win at home to England ensured India's safe passage to the showpiece event that begins on June 18-22 against the Kiwis. Conditions in England will be similar to what New Zealand have back home and it will no doubt suit Kane Williamson and his men. They also have a quality pace attack that can severely dent any batting line-up in the world.
3 selection issues India should address before WTC final
India will need to be at their very best to stand a chance of winning the inaugural WTC title. But before taking the field, they will also need to sort out their strongest playing XI. Considering the emergence of a number of talented players, this will be a good headache for the team management.
There are three conundrums in particular that head coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Kohli will need to address before the grand finale. They are:
#3 What is India's best pace trio for the final?
One of the main reasons why India have become a force to be reckoned with in overseas conditions is their potent pace attack. Credit goes to skipper Kohli, who instilled belief back in his fast bowlers as genuine match-winners.
Although India haven't won a Test series yet in South Africa, England or New Zealand, they have competed and their pacers have tormented the opposition batsmen.
The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma emerged as India's new deadly pace trio that were highly effective with each bowler bringing in a different variety. However, India had to go through an acid test in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Ishant couldn't recover from his injury and Shami was ruled out of the series after he fractured his wrist in the first Test at Adelaide. When all seemed lost, new faces like Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj and T Natarajan stepped up to show India's incredible bench strength.
The new pace trio were effective in making India create history at the Gabba, beating Australia for the first time there in 32 years. But with Ishant and Shami fit and available, India might go back to their most experienced pace trio.
However, Ishant hasn't had enough match practice and might be a bit rusty coming back from injury in red-ball cricket. Thus, there might be a temptation to play either Thakur or Siraj as the third seamer alongside Bumrah and Shami.
Siraj picked up 13 wickets in the series Down Under and was India's best bowler. Thakur also showed his ability as a seaming all-rounder and could come in handy in the absence of Hardik Pandya. Thus, it remains a fascinating prospect to see which three pacers take the field for India on June 18.
#2 Go ahead with either Jadeja, Ashwin, or both?
When Kohli had to head back to India on paternity leave after the first Test of the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane decided to play all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja instead of a pure batsman.
Rahane backed Jadeja's batting ability and it also gave the visitors five bowling options to play with. It certainly proved to be a masterstroke as Jadeja scored a half-century in the Boxing Day Test and also picked up crucial wickets, helping India make a comeback in the series.
Jadeja's injury ruled him out of the India-England series but the hosts continued their five-bowler strategy with all-rounders Washington Sundar and Axar Patel at their disposal. With Jadeja now back from injury and in good form as seen in IPL 2021, it will be interesting to see the combination of the Indian team for the final.
Ideally, India could play with six pure batsmen in England where conditions are difficult for batting. However, the rise of Rishabh Pant, coupled with Jadeja's batting exploits, could tempt India to go with five bowling options once again.
Hanuma Vihari played a heroic knock of 23 off 161 balls to help India save the SCG Test. He batted through the pain and ensured his team didn't lose the game. Vihari is currently playing County Cricket in England and has already acclimatized to the conditions there.
This makes it an incredibly tough selection decision for the Indian team management to decide whether or not to include Vihari as a pure batsman. If he is included, India will need to drop either Ravichandran Ashwin or Jadeja to play three seamers. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
#1 Who will partner Rohit Sharma at the top?
Rohit Sharma has been absolutely sensational for India as a Test opener and has become one of their current best batsmen. Scoring heaps of runs at home, to go with impressive half-centuries in testing conditions, Rohit is a certain starter for India at the top of the order.
However, the real conundrum would be the selection of his opening partner, Shubman Gill or Mayank Agarwal. The Indian team have backed Gill to partner Rohit and the youngster did show a lot of promise with a couple of half-centuries Down Under.
However, Gill didn't have the best of the series against England. He scored just 119 runs in four games at an average of less than 20. He hasn't had a great IPL 2021 season either, clearly showing he is out of form.
Agarwal, on the other hand, had become the third-fastest Indian to reach 1000 Test runs. But a difficult start to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy saw him get relegated to the bench. He could certainly be feeling hard done the decision as he practically had just two sub-par games.
Both Gill and Agarwal have had issues against the swinging ball, which makes it an even tougher decision to select either one of them to open alongside Rohit. As skipper Kohli had said in one of his press conferences, India are likely to open with Gill and Rohit.
However, as always, there might be some surprises in store when it comes to Kohli and team selection. It would be interesting to see who gets the nod and who will need to wait for a chance.