India have already taken a 2-1 lead in the ongoing four-match series against England at home and all they need now to qualify for the World Test Championship final is either a win or a draw in the final match of the series.
The hosts are currently sitting at the top of the WTC table with a PCT (points earned/points available) of 71% . They will retain that position if they win or draw the final Test against England. However, if they lose, they will go below Australia in terms of PCT and the Kangaroos will go through to the WTC final against New Zealand.
In other words, India may want to go into the match with a safe approach.
After losing the first Test by a massive margin of 227 runs, India have made good use of the turning tracks in Chennai and Ahmedabad to register commanding victories. However, India’s batting performance in their first innings of the last Test match showed how this strategy might have backfired.
India were bowled out for a paltry total of 145. They handed part-time spinner Joe Root the first five-wicket haul of his First-class career. They need to ensure that this is not repeated, so they should work towards addressing this concern ahead of the final encounter of the series.
The collapse in the last match will definitely make them think about strengthening their batting lineup. While Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant have done well, the same cannot be said about Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane as they average 23.80, 23.20 and 17 in the series respectively. Paying an extra batsman could give the team much-needed assurance going into such an important match.
India have played five bowlers in all three matches – three spinners and two pacers. However, the two frontline spinners – R Ashwin and Shahbaz Nadeem in the first Test, and Axar Patel along with Ashwin in the last two Tests – have bowled 282.1 overs between them, which is 65.59% of the total number of overs (430.1) bowled by the entire Indian bowling unit.
That sums up how sparsely India have used the two pacers and the third spinner. While the pacers have bowled 106 of those remaining 148 overs, the third spinner has bowled only 40 overs (9.3% of the total number of overs) across these three matches.
India went in with Washington Sundar for that third spinner’s role in two of the three matches, mostly because of his superior batting ability compared to Kuldeep Yadav. Sundar’s heroics with bat on debut in Australia is still fresh in memory. He played a brilliant knock of 85 not out in the first Test of this series as well.
Sundar definitely has the batting ability but it is the middle-order, not the lower-order, where India need to fix their issues. With Pujara and Rahane short of runs, India need an extra batsman in the top six to take the pressure off them a bit.
KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal are two specialist batting options India have on the bench. Agarwal, short of runs of late, is probably not his usual confident self. Rahul, on the other hand, has been waiting for an opportunity in this format for some time. He won the Orange Cap in the IPL, and will be eager to carry that form and confidence forward into this match.
There is no guarantee whether this move will reap success, but it will definitely give India the confidence and mental strength they need to hold their nerves and close the series on a high.