Ravi Shastri has seen from up close most of the Indian players currently on the tour of Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy during his successful tenure as head coach, which included the historic maiden Test series triumph on Australian soil.
Shastri and Rahul Dravid, the last two men to sit in the chair of Team India’s head coach, are probably the best placed besides their successor Gautam Gambhir to decide the 11 players most likely to fire as a unit and deliver a win in the opening Test of the BGT in Perth, beginning November 22.
On that note, Shastri spoke on ‘The ICC Review’ and revealed his playing eleven as the visitors begin their defence of the BGT in the home stretch of the World Test Championship (WTC), which requires India to beat Australia either 4-0 or 4-1 to secure a place in the WTC final.
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“It’s horses for courses in many ways. Most of the team will pick themselves, but there’ll be one or two cases where you might have to just go and dig deep and go with gut feeling,” said the former coach and 1983 World Cup winner.
To start with, India are likely to be without regular captain Rohit Sharma, who awaits the birth of his second child in Mumbai. That leaves the visitors to find a batter to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal as opener. With KL Rahul and Abhimanyu Easwaran doing nothing of note in the unofficial Tests between India A and Australia A, Shastri believes Shubman Gill will come out to open with the Jaiswal.
“That’s a tough one and selectors have a choice,” Shastri said. “You can push Shubman (Gill) back up the order and he has opened in the past in Australia. Otherwise, you’ll have to then make an alternative. Easwaran hasn’t done that well (for India A in Australia). But it’s how he’s batting in the nets, how Rahul is batting in the nets. But that Shubman Gill option is also there.”
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However, Shastri put Rahul in at No. 3 in his predicted eleven for Perth.
“Sometimes runs are not important, but if a player is moving well, and if the feet are moving nicely, and you try and understand his game and you realize if he has the game for those conditions, if he has the right kind of shots for those kinds of pitches. These are the things you’ve got to look at when you start picking a side overseas,” he said.
“I would be watching them like a hawk in the nets, the batters and the bowlers, because for me as a bowler, rhythm is important. And as a batter, again, tempo and rhythm is important.”
One batter who impressed in the outing against Australia A was wicketkeeper-batsman Dhruv Jurel, who scored 80 and 68 in his two innings at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Shastri said he can “easily play as a (specialist) batter”.
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“What impressed me most was his (Jurel’s) temperament, his calmness when the chips were down and the tightness he brought to his game – especially under pressure,” said Shastri.
“Under pressure, you can see a lot of players struggling. You can see them being fidgety. You can see them being all over the shop. You can see those nerves coming through. But in this guy’s case, his temperament stood out. Whenever the chips were down, even in that series against England (earlier this year) he stepped up to the plate. So I like what I saw and I’ll be quite prepared to give him a go if he’s in good nick.”
The former head coach believed having done well on Australian pitches leading up to the BGT opener puts Jurel in the kind of confident mental space that is required to tackle the Aussies.
“I think seeing his form, he got 80 and 60, will do his confidence a world of good, and he’s got the range of shots as well. It’s not that he’s just a blocker there; he can play shots. He can bat with the tail as well,” said the former India all-rounder.
He added that pushing Gill up from No. 3 can allow India to beef up the middle order.
“See, that’s why it becomes important. If you push Shubman up the order, it gives you more options in the middle order. So that’s how India could look to balance it if Rohit is missing,” Shastri said.
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Among the choices for spinners, Shastri said one should do in the bouncy Perth conditions that favour the fast bowlers more, while two will be luxury. On that note, he felt that Ravindra Jadeja can be preferred over Ravichandran Ashwin in overseas conditions because the latter has an edge when it comes to all-round display.
“I would go with one spinner,” Shastri said. “I was in Perth last year when Pakistan played Australia; and in those conditions, to have two spinners is a luxury. You need pace because that track has pace and bounce, and you need the bowlers to exploit it and keep the pressure on the batsman. Because even if you’re talking of spin, you use them sporadically. It was always a tough choice, even when I was the coach.”
“For which one to pick now, Ashwin or Jadeja? Then again, it’s current form over there. Jadeja brings a lot to the table with his fielding as well as batting. So he would get the edge more often than not overseas. But it’s again how they see it and what the form looks like in the nets.”
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Talking about all-round skill, the name of off-spinner Washington Sundar, and his good bowling form against New Zealand, can make India’s decision to pick one spinner a little tougher.
The former coach also believed that playing one spinner gives India an option to bring in debutant Nitish Reddy, who is an all-rounder with seam-up option, giving India a fourth fast-bowler besides Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj.
“Do they (Indian team management) want to risk going in with two spinners or do they want to take Nitesh Reddy? Reddy will have to do a job like Shardul Thakur did as the fourth seamer. He can bat a bit, give the bowlers a little bit of respite so that they can bowl in short spells…and be someone who will have to be good for those eight to 10 overs that he bowls. So that would be my pick, seeing the conditions,” Shastri concluded.
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The opening match can set the tone of what to expect going forward, which is why both the teams would want to put their best foot forward. But things can change in a long series.
It’s the first time that a BGT will be contested over five Tests, which tells how the India-Australia rivalry has grown since the turn of the century.
Ravi Shastri’s predicted XI*: Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja/Washington Sundar, Nitish Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj
(* In the event Rohit Sharma is unavailable and subject to form in the leadup)