India to continue with five-bowler theory

India vs England 2nd Test: Unperturbed by the dismal performance of their batsmen, the Indian think tank made it clear that it has no plans of playing an extra batsman and will continue with their five bowlers theory in the second Test match at Lord’s, starting on Thursday.

Unperturbed by the dismal performance of their batsmen, the Indian think tank made it clear that it has no plans of playing an extra batsman and will continue with their five bowlers theory in the second Test match at Lord’s, starting on Thursday.  

India lost the first Test at Birmingham by 31 runs with none of the Indian batsmen apart from Virat Kohli finding an answer to Anderson and Co.

As per reports, there will be no respite for the Indian batsmen at Lord’s, where a considerable amount of grass has been left to assist the medium pacers. The pitch being under covers for the last two days, there are high chances of moisture seeping in, which will only add to the batsman’s problems.

Been under the covers for a while now but England national selector Ed Smith gets a peek... Square looks a bit dry but lots of used pitches so that could be a wrong assumption from afar. #EngvInd pic.twitter.com/X7jQAjDDCk

— Chetan Narula (@chetannarula) August 7, 2018

Despite all this, India have no plans of playing a batsman at No. 6. India bowling coach Bharat Arun, in fact, termed the idea as defensive.

"Playing an extra batsman here, I would consider it as a conservative move. I think everything depends on the conditions and they are not going to be as friendly as it was in the first Test, it makes more sense to play five bowlers (here)," Arun said during a press conference.

Interestingly, Sunil Gavaskar has been the biggest advocate of playing an extra batsman after India's poor show in the series opener.

The Indian batsmen were seen pushing hard at swinging deliveries but Arun defended them.

"The batsmen played a lot forward in Birmingham and they did it in the practice game as well. They feel they have a lot more options in doing that rather than staying back inside the crease," Arun said.

He further explained the reason for the expansive front foot movement.

 "You are cutting the amount of swing that the bowler can get by going further up and closer to the ball. I guess it worked pretty well for the batsmen (thus far)," he added.

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 Arun also expressed his satisfaction after the bowlers once again took 20 wickets in a Test match outside sub-continent. This is the fourth consecutive Test match after three in South Africa where the bowlers have taken 20 wickets.

 "We can't ask for anything better. There is still room for improvement but the bowlers did a good job. There was huge improvement from the first innings to the second and that was extremely welcome," he said.

 The square at the Lord's (venue for the second Test) bore a dry look on Tuesday, with a variety of heavily used wickets.

 Arun said that any call on team combination will be taken on the eve of the Test match.

 "We will take a call tomorrow. We will take a look at the wicket but our bowlers have done extremely well in the last game. So we really need to look at any change in strategy depending on the wicket."

 He didn't divulge if an additional spinner in Ravindra Jadeja or Kuldeep Yadav will come into play.

 "It's a good choice (to pick between Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja), a tough one too. Depending on the conditions and the team, we'll take a call on that," said Arun.

 Hardik Pandya bowled only 10 overs in the first innings at Edgbaston and none in the second but Arun thinks that it's a good sign.

"The less Hardik bowls, it augurs well for the team because it means other (specialist) bowlers have done very well. I am not taking any credit from Hardik. But he did an exceptionally good job for us in South Africa and I don't see any reason why he shouldn't come to the part here," he added.

The coach also defended Umesh Yadav, who was erratic in the first innings.

"Umesh is at his best when he is bowling quick. In the first innings, he was more looking at bowling to one line. But in the second innings he was being himself," he signed off.