Debasis Sen, London: Indian captain Virat Kohli will revert back to changing his playing XI for the fifth and final test match against England which gets underway at the Oval from Friday. Kohli went in with the same combination at Southampton which won the third test match at Trentbridge.
The Southampton Test was the first time Virat Kohli went in with an unchanged team for successive Tests in his tenure as captain. It looks like Hanuma Vihari is all set to get his test cap at the Oval. He is likely to replace Hardik Pandya while left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja will get his first opportunity in the series as Ashwin is nursing an injury.
The 24 year old Vihari averages a healthy 59.79 in first class cricket and also bowls off spin. The Hyderabadi cricketer will replace Hardik Pandya as the wicket here at the Oval might suit spinners towards the later stages. Vihari was promoted at the batting order during the final net session today ahead of the test match. He was seen batting alongside Cheteshwar Pujara and KL Rahul. Later he was also seen bowling with Ravindra Jadeja. If Vihari does make his debut, he will become India’s 292nd Test player.
Pandya was ineffective at the Ageas Bowl, as the England batsmen played him without any problem. Pandya did not bowl at the nets on Thursday, neither did he went into bat at the nets. Both Pandya and Prithwi Shaw were seen bowling to Virat Kohli before the Indian captain went into the nets. If India drops Pandya, it will be the first time he will have missed a Test on his three overseas tours so far.
Kohli has trusted in a five-man bowling attack outside of India with Pandya as one of the seamers. But as this series has showed, Pandya isn’t as effective when the pitch and overhead conditions don’t offer too much help for the quicks. He then becomes a batting all-rounder, and so far he hasn’t really shown enough consistency with the bat to merit batting in the top six regularly.
Ashwin, on the other hand had been disappointing in Southampton, failing to match Moeen Ali and land the ball consistently in the footmarks. Doubts surfaced over whether Ashwin had fully recovered from the hip injury he picked during the third Test at Trent Bridge. On Wednesday India coach Ravi Shastri said Ashwin was fit, but had not managed to utilise the rough as well as Moeen did.
The off-spinner did not bowl at the nets on Thursday as well. He did give a fitness test in front of strength and conditioning Shankar Basu and physio Pattrick Farhat and also tried rolling his arms in one of the nets towards the end of the practice session. If nothing drastically changes overnight, captain Virat Kohli will go in with the two changes. Whether the changes bring back the smiles on the Indian captain, we will have to wait till the end of the test match.
Hosts England will be going in with an unchanged squad that won the series at Southampton.