BIRMINGHAM: India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate on Monday, shared that the visitors are likely to go with two spinners in the second Test against England, scheduled to be played here at the Edgbaston from Wednesday.
India suffered a gruelling five-wicket defeat in the series opener last week despite their batting unit’s commendable performance as it yielded five individual centuries.
Their bowling, however, was a concern as they failed to defend 371 runs despite having ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the arsenal.
Following the thrashing, cricket pundits advised head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill to make tweaks to their lineup, particularly calling for the addition of a spinner.
While India are still undecisive about retaining Bumrah, their assistant coach ten Doeschate shared that he is confident that two spinners will be in their lineup for the upcoming fixture.
He further suggested that the dry nature of the surface despite the rain forecast may result in them fielding two specialist spinners.
“It’s just which two we play. And that goes back to juggling the batting depth. All three spinners are bowling very nicely,” said ten Doeschate.
“Washi is batting very nicely. So it’s just which combination do we go with? The allrounder-spinner or the out-and-out spinner? And obviously you have to play the bowling allrounder again.
“So there are so many different variables. The wicket has got 11 mils [mm of grass] at the moment, 11 or 12, I can’t remember which of the two, but it’s quite grassy and patchy.
“It’s quite dry underneath, but there’s also rain forecast for Wednesday, so again trying to weigh up the two options of how we want to go attack-wise, but I’m pretty sure two spinners will play in this Test.”
