Team India's thumping win over West Indies in the first Test saw them garner 12 points in the World Test Championship cycle 3. It was beautifully set up by debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal and old horses Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as the Men in Blue ran through the Windies in Dominica. Jaiswal's 171 and Ravi Ashwin's 12 wickets in the match handed India cakewalk innings and 141 runs win over the Windies. Despite this, the Team might be dropping a few players from the Playing XI.
After India's win over the hosts at Windsor Park in Dominica, captain Rohit Sharma reflected on the match performances and also dropped a major hint on the next match's team. Sharma stated that the team did a great effort with both the bat and the ball to get the win under the belt. "I would like to start by saying it was a great effort with the ball. Getting them out for 150 set the game for us. We knew batting would get tough, it wasn't easy to score runs. We knew we wanted to bat only once and bat long. Get over 400 runs and then we came out and bowled really well," Sharma said after the match.
There are a couple of new guys who have not played much: Sharma
The Indian captain further went on to say that there are a few players in the side that have not played much Test cricket and the team will be looking to give them game time. "Important to start well, now about taking that momentum into the 2nd Test. There are a couple of new guys and people who haven't had much Test cricket, so just about getting them out on the field now," Sharma said.
Who can get the nod now?
Going by Sharma's words, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar can be in line to play the second Test. While Gaikwad and Mukesh are yet to make their Test debuts, Saini has not played a Test match for a long time. Gaikwad has played just one ODI and 9 T20Is for India but is yet to don the Indian jersey in the longest format. Meanwhile, Kumar has not played any match for India and is fresh. Saini isn't a Test veteran too and has played just a couple of matches. His last Test was India's famous Gabba win over Australia in January 2021. The second Test match is set to be played from July 20 onwards at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad
