After hitting ‘36’ nadir, battered India look to ring in changes

Hammered in the first Test by eight wickets after being shot out for their lowest ever Test score of 36 in the second innings, the Indian team would be looking to ring in a few changes for the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

While captain Virat Kohli, who is returning to India to attend the birth of his first child, and Mohammed Shami, who is learned to have suffered a fracture on his bowling hand, will have to be replaced due to circumstances, Prithvi Shaw could lose out on form as he has failed to score in all six innings -- four in warm-ups and two in first Test during the ongoing tour.

India may bring in KL Rahul and Shubman Gill as the replacements for batsmen Kohli and Shaw, if the latter is axed.

Rishabh Pant, either as wicketkeeper-batsman or purely as batsman, and spinner Ravindra Jadeja will also most likely make the cut.

For Shami, the team management have right-arm pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini as replacements. The team management may add one of T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur and Karthik Tyagi as replacement in the squad. Natarajan provides a left-arm option to the side.

India’s left-arm bowlers had, in the previous decade, produced some exciting moments on Australian tours, be it Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, or Ashish Nehra. Over the last two tours, in 2014-15 and 2018-19, and the ongoing one, India have not had a single left-arm seamer touring Australia even though their frontline pace attack comprising right-armers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma bowled them to series victory in 2018-19.

With Ishant Sharma already not there -- he is recuperating at the National Cricket Academy -- India are hard-pressed for quality pace bowlers.

Bumrah will lead the pace attack along with Umesh Yadav, who is on his fourth tour of Australia. It will be interesting to see who India play as third seamer, provided they play a third seamer at all.

Left-arm spinner Jadeja, who missed the first Test after being hit on the head in the first T20I on December 4, will most likely pair up with R Ashwin in a two-pronged spin attack, if the left-armer regains match fitness. Jadeja also provides a batting option lower down.

Jadeja could bat at No.6 or 7, depending on India’s decision to play three or two seamers.

Hanuma Vihari will also be under spotlight as he failed in both the innings, although he had a decent outing in the warm-ups -- a century and a 28 besides a couple of 15s. He made 16 and eight in the two innings of the Test. If the Indian team management sacks him, it will most likely play Pant at No.6.

Mayank Agarwal would open with either Gill or Rahul with Pujara in at No. 3. Rahane could move to No. 4, with either Gill or Rahul coming in at No. 5.

FIT BURNS RARING TO GO: There are still many questions over Australia’s opening partnership for the second test against India but one thing is all but certain -- Joe Burns will face the new ball at the Melbourne Cricket Ground later this week.

Burns came into the first Test on an extremely poor run of form -- 62 first class runs in nine innings -- but scored a half century to drive Australia to victory at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, sealing the win with a six.

His innings might be destined to be a footnote in the records of that remarkable test after the Australian bowlers had skittled India for 36, but it clearly did his confidence no harm.

“I felt fantastic out there, just to get the job done on a fantastic day for Australian cricket, to back up our bowlers, was a really nice feeling,” he told reporters on Monday.

“We’re the best team in the world, so we’re confident against every team in every venue. Our bowlers are unbelievable ... it’s a great luxury for our team.”

Burns took a blow to the elbow from a Jasprit Bumrah delivery during Australia’s run chase on Saturday but said he did not anticipate any lasting issues from the injury.

Burns meanwhile said that the visitors will be depleted by the absence of pace bowler Shami and skipper Kohli in the remaining matches of the series.

“I think Shami and Virat are big losses for India. In saying that, Indian team has got very good depth. They are still going to be challenging. It is always hard to replace world class players like that (but) we are going to look who are going to come in. We have to prepare really well for the next game, we know Indians can bounce back strongly. We have to start well and carry on the momentum from the last game. We know we can bounce back,” Burns told reporters on Monday.