Legendary India cricketer Ravi Shastri was not convinced with the team management’s decision to include Mukesh Kumar in the playing XI instead of Washington Sundar for the second Test match against England in Visakhapatnam starting Friday. While England went with four spinners in their side, India decided to include Mukesh Kumar in place of Mohammed Siraj along with Jasprit Bumrah. Shastri said on commentary that he was not sure about how effective Mukesh will be considering India were batting first and wondered if an extra spin option in Washington Sundar would have been more beneficial.
“My only concern is picking Mukesh Kumar over Washington Sundar. How much of use will Mukesh be, especially after India is batting first on this Vizag surface,” Ravi Shastri said on commentary.
Talking about Day 1 of 2nd test, Yashasvi Jaiswal batted with supreme confidence for an unbeaten 179 off 257 balls that single-handedly drove India to 336 for six on day one of the second Test against England here on Friday and secured his place at the top of the order for the foreseeable future.
Unlike the series opener, Jaiswal made sure he converted his strong start into a big hundred but the other Indian batters failed to make the most of batting friendly conditions.
The 22-year-old now has two hundreds and as many fifties to his name in only his 10th Test innings.
Jaiswal, whose special effort comprised 17 boundaries and five sixes, had R Ashwin (5) by his side at stumps.
India made 111 runs in the final session for the loss of three wickets including Axar Patel (27 off 51) and K S Bharat (17 off 23). For England, debutant Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed picked up two wickets apiece.
Debutant Rajat Patidar (32 off 72) played one on to his stumps while offering a forward defence to leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. A total of 93 overs were bowled with four spinners in operation.
Trailing 0-1 in the five-match series, India would like to get to at least 500 on day two and then put pressure on the England batters on a pitch where variable bounce is expected to come into play from day three.
The odd ball kept low even on the opening day but conditions remained favourable of the batters. However, the injury to Ravindra Jadeja has resulted in a longer tail, which will need to wag for India to get anywhere close to 500.
(With PTI inputs)
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