2nd Test: India could go spin heavy with Rahul Chahar, bring in Mohammed Siraj

The 227run loss in the first Test to England may prompt the Indian team management to make changes in the bowling lineup But with leftarm spinner Ravindra Jadeja out injured due to a fractured thumb India still have a tough task to pick the XI especially their fourth and fifth bowlersOn a pitch expected to be dry and slow India may dish out four spinners including allrounder Washington Sundar who could play as a specialist batsmanLeftarm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and offspinner Sundar the fourth and fifth bowlers had copped criticism from the India captain Virat Kohli for leaking too many runs in the first TestWhile Sundar may still play because of his batting ability he made 85 not out in the second innings and could possibly be pushed up the order Nadeem is likely to be left outOn Wednesday the Indian cricket board released a video of Axar Patel bowling at the nets The leftarm spinner was expected to be a direct replacement in the first Test for Jadeja as he could also bat besides bowling leftarm spin But he had to miss out due to knee injuryAxars inclusion will provide Indias bowling some variety something the team wanted in the first place as Kohli pointed out while explaining the reasoning in calling up Nadeem from the reserves ahead of Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav who is in the squad for the first two Tests Nadeem could take the ball away from righthanded batsmen unlike Yadav who would bring his stock ball in like R Ashwin and SundarBy playing Axar with Ashwin and Sundar though India will again be devoid of playing a wrist spinner something they have lacked in recent past Kohli had initially backed Yadav because there were no other quality wrist spinners who could play toplevel cricket for IndiaIndias experiment with legspinners since Anil Kumbles retirement has failed Karn Sharma and Amit Sharma havent clicked A ray of hope has arisen with Rajasthan legspinner Rahul Chahar who is also in the reserves like NadeemIndia can throw Chahar 21 who has played just one T20 International for India in the deep end considering that this team management isnt averse to playing T20 specialists in Test cricket like they did with Sundar in AustraliaChahar has played 17 firstclass matches for Rajasthan and picked 69 wickets with seven fivewicket haulsThe team management can therefore play Ashwin Axar and Chahar in the spin attack They may push Sundar up the order as batsman probably replacing Rohit Sharma at the top although Kohli had said ahead of the first Test that SharmaShubman Gill duo at the top will be tried for the entire seriesThe team management may also rest Ishant Sharma who took his 300th wicket in the first Test and play pace bowler Mohammed Siraj who impressed on his debut tour of Australia by hitting consistent lengthsSiraj was impressive by hitting the right spots especially on the Brisbane wicket and bowled the most number of overs by an Indian bowler in the series 1341 and was Indias highest wickettaker with 13 scalpsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever