India are set to start their home season on September 19 with the two-match Test series against Bangladesh. With the visitors coming off after a historic away series win over Pakistan, this contest has gained a lot of importance. Even India are not taking Najmul Hossain Shanto and his men lightly despite boasting a brilliant home record over the last decade. Even as the team is training hard in Chennai, skipper Rohit Sharma and the management face a selection dilemma.
Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja pick themselves in the playing XI but who will fill the fifth bowler's slot is the big question. Earlier, the battle was only between Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav as team India has gone with three spinners at home in the majority of matches. In fact, only once, in the 2019 Kolkata Test against Bangladesh, has India loaded their XI with three fast bowlers.
According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, a red-soil pitch is expected to be on offer in Chennai which means there will be quality bounce and carry for the fast bowlers. While spin will definitely come into play as the Test match progresses, the pace bowlers are likely to pose danger right through and the conditions will also bring reverse swing into play.
Apart from Axar and Kuldeep, the other two fast bowlers in the squad, Akash Deep and Yash Dayal also come in contention to make it to the XI. Last time when India played on a purely red-soil pitch against England back in 2021, it didn't break until late in the match and having had to bat fourth, India ended up losing the game.
However, three years later, the surface in Chepauk has changed completely as three out of nine pitches here are made of red soil brought from Mumbai. The same soil is used at the Wankhede Stadium which is known to generate true bounce and help both spinners and fast bowlers. For the same reason, the Indian players also trained on exclusively red-soil pitch on Monday (September 16). So, it remains to be seen if India will go with Akash Deep or Yash Dayal as their third pacer or back Bumrah and Siraj to do the job by picking three spinners.
India squad for first Test vs Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.
