3 tough decisions India needs to make before the World Test Championship (WTC) final

India’s journey in the 2019-21 World Test Championship has so far been full of ups and downs. The Indian team successfully dominated West Indies on their home ground. They also beat South Africa and Bangladesh at home. This Virat Kohli-led team had looked set to dominate the WTC final with ease.

However, a 2-0 loss at the hands of New Zealand led India to go down. The Indian team had to beat Australia in tough conditions to qualify for the final. A 3-1 series win against the Englishmen secured their spot in the finale of the WTC Final. The showpiece event is scheduled or be from June 18-22. The conditions in England would be similar to what the Kane Williamson-led team is used to back home. The Kiwis also have an impressive pace attack that can badly dent any batting lineup in the world. India would have to play their best game to stand a chance at winning the first-ever ICC World Test Championship title.

There are three issues in particular that head coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli need to address.

What should be India’s pace trio for the WTC Final?

The Indian Team’s pace attack is a force to be reckoned with in foreign conditions. The credit for this goes to the current skipper Virat Kohli. He instilled a sense of belief back in his fast bowlers as genuine match winners.

India is yet to win a Test in South Africa, England, and New Zealand but the team has competed. The pacers of the team in those matches literally tormented the opponent batsmen. The pace trio of Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Shami had proved highly effective. However, in the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the trio was absent due to injuries. New faces like Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, and T Natarajan stepped up to show the effectiveness of India’s bench strength.

The new trio was effective in helping India create history at the Gabba. India won against Australia for the first time there in 32 years. But Ishant and Shami are again fit and available for the WTC final. India is now likely to go back to its most experienced trio.

Ishant Sharma has not had enough practice matches and would probably be a bit rusty after coming back from injury. Thus either Thakur or Siraj could be played as the third seamer alongside Bumrah and Shami. Thus, it would be fascinating to see which three pacers would represent India on the field on 18^th June.

Ashwin, Jadeja, or both of them?

Ajinkya Rahane has decided to play Ravindra Jadeja instead of a pure batsman after the first Test of 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar trophy. Rahane had backed Jadeja's batting ability and also gave India five bowling options to attack with. The decision was proved or be successful as Jadeja scored a half-century and also picked up important wickets on the boxing day match. He helped India make a comeback in the series.

Jadeja was ruled out of the England series due to injuries but now he is back and is in good form as seen in IPL 2021. The Indian team had continued with the five bowlers strategy with all-rounders Axar Patel and Washington Sundar in Jadeja’s absence. Ideally, India would play six pure batsmen in English conditions. But with the rise of  Pant mixed with Jadeja‘s batting exploits could make Kohli go with five bowling options again.

The decision to play Hanuma Vihari would be the key factor in deciding whether Ashwin or Jadeja has to be dropped. Hanuma Vihari is already playing county cricket in England and is well accommodated to the nation’s conditions. It would be interesting to see how it works out.

Who will open with Rohit Sharma at the top?

Rohit Sharma has been a dependable test opener for India. He has become the team’s current best batsman. He is certain to start for India at the top. The real question is in the selection of his opening partner. The two players to choose from are Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill.

Gill had previously backed by the  Indian team to open with Rohit Sharma. But he has been out of form for the IPL 2022 season as well as his performance against England had been least impressive. Mayank Agarwal on the other hand has become the third-fastest Indian to touch the 1000 test runs mark. But he was benched after a blow par starts in the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Both the players have had issues against the swing ball. It makes the decision to choose between them tough for Kohli. In one of his press conferences, Kohli had stated that India would probably open with Gill and Rohit Sharma.

However, there might be some surprises in the store for the fans. It would be interesting to see who gets the chance to play and who has to wait for a chance.

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