India vs England: Can visit to Man U’s Theatre of Dreams fire up Gill & Co?

The pre-match hype ahead of the Lord’s Test, where India had gone in after squaring the series in style and enjoying the backing of history, is conspicuously absent before the fourth Test at Manchester's Old Trafford. The last time they played there was under Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2014, a match which the tourists lost by a whopping innings and 54 runs.

The head-to-head record at this historic venue in the north of England — where a visit to Manchester United’s 'Theatre of Dreams' in the neighbourhood held the Indian team in thrall — is a disappointing four losses-five draws-no wins for India. What’s more, the last Indian centurion on this turf was a young Sachin Tendulkar in 1990.

Add to this the sudden rash of injuries in the Indian camp, and it’s quite an uphill psychological battle that the new-look team is fighting to stay in the series. There is, however, no time to ponder the what-ifs a la TV pundit Ravi Shastri, who tried to insist the other day that Shubman Gill & Co. could well have been 3-0 up in the series with a bit of luck.

Ben Stokes’ men, Bazball or no Bazball, have seized their moments better and have showed a clarity of thinking by naming their playing XI two days before the start this time as well.

Their only change for Wednesday is Liam Dawson, the left-arm spinner who last played for England in July 2017, coming in for the injured Shoaib Bashir. Contrast this with the Indian approach, where tough-talking coach Gautam Gambhir has been forced to resort to ambivalence over Jasprit Bumrah and defensiveness in his primary thinking of batting deep, hence not having enough variety in the bowling to take 20 wickets.

The current situation — with seaming allrounder Nitish Reddy and left-arm medium-pacer Arshdeep Singh ruled out of the remaining Tests and Akash Deep a doubtful starter — limits the choice for the team management. The buzz among the travelling media is that India will largely revert to the playing XI of the first Test at Leeds, with Sai Sudarshan back (possibly at number six), Karun Nair being retained at number three and the experienced Shardul Thakur coming in as man-for-man replacement for Reddy.

Given the rain predictions and a first look at the turf, India are likely to go in with a lone spinner in Ravindra Jadeja, with his four priceless fifties in the series so far shutting down talk of the value he brings to the team. This means Washington Sundar, who flew under the radar despite doing his bit in the last two Tests, will be out, with three fast bowlers getting the nod.

Now that Mohammed Siraj has indicated at a media interaction on Monday that Bumrah is part of the plan, the question is who will be the third to join the Bumrah-Siraj combination. The tall Anshul Khamboj, AK-47 for his state mates of Haryana, carried the right attitude at the nets and may make his debut under helpful conditions in case Akash Deep finally fails the fitness check.

The ebb-and-flow of all three Tests so far, irrespective of the results, been an excellent advertisement for Test cricket. The fact that all of them have gone to the last session have also cocked a snook at those trying to make a case for four-day Tests.

Another such battle seems to be on the cards in the backyard of Lancashire as Harry Brook said: ‘’Every game we’ve played so far has gone into the last hour of the game, which you do not see very often. I’ve had a lot of people come up to me saying: it’s been an amazing series, thank you.’’

Few will disagree…

Catch the Match

England vs India, Fourth Test

Old Trafford, 23 July

Start: 3.30 pm IST