India skipper Virat Kohli hinted at a few surprises in the playing XI for the second Test and that’s all he would say on the subject. The general feeling on the ground is that the Indians are basically contemplating between playing seven batsmen and four bowlers or go with five bowlers like they did in Pune.
The reason for this thought could be the unusual whitish colour of the pitch on offer at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. As reported earlier, the central wicket is not used for the Test and the one that will be used looks a lot drier than a normal Bangalore wicket.
These days, when India play four bowlers, it is normally two pacers and two spinners, proof of how the pacers have come on. But that might change here and there is a high possibility that the final XI will consist of seven batsmen with Karun Nair coming in to boost the batting, three spinners and a single pacer.
In the past, playing a single pacer in India was quite the norm and that theory could just be revisited.
And while R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are shoo-ins, the third spinner could be a toss-up between offie Jayant Yadav and young chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, with the former holding a definite edge because of the number of left-handers in the Australian batting line-up.
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