Gambhir to give Karun Nair another chance; no Kuldeep Yadav & Arshdeep Singh in India’s playing XI

Due to Rishabh Pant's injury, India was expected to make at least one change but they might just make 3 more.

Karun Nair has been granted what could be his final opportunity. Dropped after 6 underwhelming performances, the veteran batter is likely to feature in the India vs England 5th Test.

Karun Nair for Shardul Thakur

According to the Indian Express, Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill will drop Shardul Thakur for the Oval Test and play an extra batter. The all-rounder came in as a replacement for Nitish Kumar Reddy, who had injured himself and was ruled out of the series.

Playing as a bowler first, Shardul delivered just 11 overs out of India’s 157.1 in Manchester. The move made no sense since India’s other bowlers could have taken this much load combined and could have either played an extra bowler or batter.

With a chance to level the series at 2-2, Gambhir and Gill have decided to bolster their batting lineup and add Nair. The move can be seen as defensive since India’s woes have been more bowling related in the series. More often than not, the batters have stood up.

No Kuldeep Yadav or Arshdeep Singh

This also means that Kuldeep Yadav won’t be playing. This was suggested yesterday as well but Gill. The Indian captain hinted in the press that England aren’t playing a frontline spinner while India has two in Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar.

As expected, Jasprit Bumrah will be rested. Anshul Kamboj will be dropped after his poor display in Manchester. The two pacers will be replaced by Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, while Mohammed Siraj will lead the attack, like he did at Edgbaston.

This also means that Arshdeep Singh won’t be making his Test debut. Gill had said that the left-arm pacer has been told to ‘be ready.’ But it seems like the management isn’t ready to hand someone their debut with the series on the line.

Likely India’s Playing XI for Oval Test

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna