Greg Chappell, a batting legend of Australia, feels India suffered in the first Test against England because of the lack of variety in their bowling. He suggests including Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav in the playing eleven, calling Yadav the best wrist spinner since Shane Warne.
India lost the first Test by 5 wickets and also dropped 8 catches.
Chappell wrote in his ESPNCricinfo column that the poor fielding wasn’t the main reason for India’s loss. He felt most of India’s problems were self inflicted. One mistake was the no ball that gave Harry Brook an early chance in the second innings.
The former Australian captain also believes that the similarity of India’s right-arm seamers, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur created a bigger problem than the fielding.
He said that apart from Jasprit Bumrah, India’s seamers are too similar, which is a tactical problem. They are all right-arm, medium-fast and operate at similar angles. Wickets fall after a bowling change and the batter has to adjust. Shubman Gill doesn’t have that variation with the current bowlers.
The 76-year-old former India coach suggested adding left-arm seamer Arshdeep and wrist spinner Kuldeep to bring in some contrast to the attack.
He said without Bumrah he would like to see Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav in the mix
In Headingley, Bumrah took 5/140 in 43.4 overs. Thakur and Krishna took 2/89 in 16 overs and 5/220 in 35 overs.
Chappell said the rest of the attack has to be more disciplined even with Bumrah. He didn’t see two balls in a row land in a dangerous spot, they were either too full, too short or too wide. Bowlers have to work together like batters. England only has to handle Bumrah and they know the pressure will ease.
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Chappell also felt the Indian team management is favouring batting depth over a balanced bowling attack.
He disagreed with picking an extra batter who can bowl as insurance against top order collapse. He thinks trusting the top six to score runs and having the best combination to get 20 wickets is important.
India chose to play Ravindra Jadeja as the only spinner at Leeds.Jadeja isn’t a primary spinner in English conditions, if his batting is good enough he can be a support spinner or a change is needed. India needs a better balanced team to turn things around in this series and the selectors are now under pressure, they need to be brave.
