IND vs ENG: Rishabh Pant assured of long rope

Rishabh Pant has earned his stripes with excellent batting performances in Australia and will get a long rope in the fiveday format said India captain Virat Kohli who also loosely hinted that Axar Patel might be in line for a Test debut against EnglandThe Indian captain also made it clear that while bowlers who can bat well will be in the forefront of their plans during the four Tests the opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill is expected to be persisted with during the entire duration of the series against England starting here on Friday Yes Rishabh will start and take the gloves tomorrow He had impact performances recently and he is in a good space and we want him to build on this along with improvement in all aspects of his game Kohli said while elaborately discussing various aspects of team combinationThis will happen with game time and confidence he gains with playing those games thats how we look at Rishabh he added The skipper also praised how Pant who was excluded from the white ball setup worked hard in Australia and results were there for everyone to see After IPL when he came to Australia he wasnt a part of the white ball setup He kept working hard on his fitness and game and realised that he got the results eventually All of us were very happy We have backed him quite a lot and for good reason what we saw in Australia what he can do with the bat and that brings in a lot of value to this team He will be continued to be backed because he is an impact player and opposition will be wary of him Kohli saidThe skipper said that they will continue to back bowling allrounders which has been the pattern for the teams success in home conditions And therein Axar according to the captain fits the bill perfectly if one factors in Ravindra Jadejas absence The reason was basically to have someone similar to Jadejas skills as to what they provide to the team which Axar brings in all three departments of the game That falls in our plansSince Jaddu was not available Axar was preferred because he brings in the same kind of discipline on the field Kohli was very clear about his plans on RohitGill combination We are looking forward to giving them all four Tests and give us good starts The key to winning the Tests was how they batted in Australia We are looking forward to more of that in this series he saidOn a different note he indicated that with four Tests at home Kuldeep Yadav is expected to get his share of chances having last played a fiveday game in January 2019 Someone like Kuldeep hasnt had much of a game time in the longest format for a while now I mean you can count two years but in 2020 we didnt play any cricket for so long But now that the home season starts he will be in the scheme of things To keep guys motivated you need to give them goals Kohli said The skipper is also impressed with the improvement that Kuldeep has shown while being with the team in all these months Kuldeep is someone who has got a lot of skills and he understands that there are areas in his game he needed to work and he has worked beautifully in Australia He seemed fitter and I see his bowling much more improved than what I have seen before He has added to his skill sets as well Kohli observedLook these are young guys and they understand that if they capitalise on opportunities their careers will be very long These are the people who will take the team forward While Jasprit Bumrah is an automatic pick in his first home Test Kohli didnt indicate who among Mohammed Siraj or Ishant Sharma will partner the Gujarat speedster with the new ball Jassi Bumrah will be keen to start in home conditions because he understands this pitch very well and his skill sets will be very very handy on these kind of tracks Along with Ishant Siraj all of them bowling so well its exciting to know that you have so many options something as a captain you are very very pleased to see he said keeping the cards close to his chestThis 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