Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s fielding coach, revealed that the decision to add Washington Sundar to the Test squad was made keeping an eye on New Zealand’s make-up. Washington was added after the first Test in Bengaluru after scoring 150 against Delhi in a Ranji Trophy game, where he also picked up six wickets in total.
Speaking ahead of the second Test in Pune, Ten Doeschate said: “Look, we’ve obviously got Axar in the squad as well. They’re filled with four left-handers in their 11. We also want the option to take the ball away from the left-handers. We’ve had Washi around the white ball squad for a while, and we like how he operates. It’s also nice to see that guys are getting rewarded for Ranji Trophy performances.
So, hopefully, that sends a good message to all the other guys. But it’s certainly not a desperate measure. We’ve got a lot of faith in the spinners we have. We just want to make sure we’re absolutely prepared for the conditions. And if that does mean taking the ball away from the left-hander, we want that option,” he said and confirmed that there was no injury concerns with R Ashwin, the other off-spinner in the squad.
India went 0-1 in the three-match series and admitted to getting their reading of the conditions in Bengaluru wrong, which Doeschate is keen to correct in Pune. Two days ahead of the start of the Test, the ground staff swept and scrubbed the Pune surface under the baking sun.
“I haven’t been out there myself yet, but rest assured we’re going to do everything we can to give the best assessment of that wicket. We got it slightly wrong in Bangalore the other day. I don’t think it was a massive miss. The conditions just caught us on the back foot a little bit. So you can be sure that the preparation and the assessment of the wicket is going to be as close to perfect as we can make it,” said Doeschate.
With Shubman Gill on course to full recovery and Rishabh Pant not in major concern, India’s selection headache would centre around picking the right players for the conditions in Pune.
“Rishabh’s pretty good. I think Rohit touched on it the other day. He was having a little bit of discomfort at the end range of his movement with the knee. But fingers crossed he’ll be good to keep in the Test.”
Doeschate reaffirmed that no player’s form was a problem. Still, he acknowledged that India will need to consider their batting choices in light of Sarfaraz Ahmed’s 150 in the previous game and KL Rahul’s quiet Test, which placed him in a position despite his recent standout performances. Yes, it is useless to sugarcoat it. The competition for a spot is fierce. Sarfaraz was clearly very good in the last exam. How many balls did you play and miss at, I asked KL [Rahul] after the last Test. He got the two balls in the game; one caught down the leg side and one that he missed, which usually happens when you’re not scoring runs.
A similar quandary could arise on the fast-bowling front as well. Mohammed Siraj picked up two wickets in the first Test, while Akash Deep had to sit out after doing well in the Bangladesh Test series. But Doeschate felt nothing was worrying about Siraj and admitted that Akash was “not far” from returning.
“Yeah, I think Siraj bowled beautifully in the second innings. That hour of Test Match cricket last morning was really high quality. It [bengaluru] maybe wasn’t a nicking wicket, which is obviously his big strength, particularly to left-handers when he moves the ball across. Again, it’s probably not the answer you want to hear, but there’s nothing there to say he’s not bowling well or his rhythm’s not good. Maybe he’s just going through a little bit of a wicket drought. But no concerns again. If he’s given the chance, we’ve got a few tactical things we want to work on coming around the wicket – challenging the stumps slightly more. But his speed and accuracy are good. And I thought in the second innings he was excellent.”
“During games, Akash has been bowling a lot. You must have witnessed him bowling following the Bangalore Test as well. Ideally, we spread the workload amongst the seamers we want to take [to Australia]. That will be the first thing depending on how many seamers we play [in Pune]. But yeah, Akash is bowling really, really well. So he’s not far off getting back on the team,” he said.
