Five Talking Points From India's Warm-Up Match Against Essex

The three-day practice match between India and Essex ended on a premature note when the skies opened up. The visitors finished the day with 89 for two with KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane unbeaten on 36 and 19 respectively. There is plenty to talk about but we have focused on just five talking points of the revamped fixture.

Earlier in the day, India took a lead of 36 runs courtesy resilience from Indian pace attack.

The pacemen of Team India delivered some impressive stuff who ensured that the hosts were bowled out for 359 owing to their first essay.

India did not opt for spin attack. Despite they could have used the services of a trio in the form of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja respectively.

It remained a mystery that whether a pitch has nothing for them or skipper Virat Kohli decided to keep them as a surprise element. The trio just bowled 11 overs throughout the match.

It would be interesting to see which pair will get a chance as there is no clear picture as of now. The above one and many other things are a few aspects regarding the talking points in India’s drawn-out affair.

1. Dashing Rishabh Pant

The Indian management decided to give a national call to wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant. Having likes of Parthiv Patel, the 20-year-old Delhi boy got a chance as a backup wicketkeeper-batsman with Dinesh Karthik as the first-choice gloveman.

Against County side Essex, Pant was asked to bat at number 11 for Team India. He scored a quickfire 34* runs off just 26 balls with six boundaries in them. As India amassed 395 runs in the first innings.

It is unclear yet whether he will get any chance to feature in Edgbaston Test. However, if he got a chance one should not be surprised with Kohli being at the helm.

The flop-duo of Dhawan and Pujara:

Going back to the practice match, the poor run of Shikhar Dhawan and Chetheshwar Pujara will add worries to India. Dhawan bagged a duck while as Pujara scored a run.

Dhawan has been cleaned up once again for a duck in the second innings. Despite, Pujara got off to an excellent start, he got dismissed on 23.

The duo does not have a good run in the last tour of England also. India will be hoping a handful practice from the pair that will help them in the first match of the series.

Three Ks on fire:

The story goes opposite to the Dhawan-Pujara duo when it comes to KL Rahul, Kohli, and Karthik. All of them amassed respective fifties.

Management may think to open the first Test Match with KL Rahul, and he may replace Murali Vijay.

The ambiguity gets more into power keeping in view the history of surprise inclusions from Kohli.

4. Lack of time for spin bowling:

Until and unless England will prepare a rank turner. India will go with two spinners out of three in the form of Jadeja, Kuldeep, and Ashwin.

Ashwin bowled just five overs in the practice game. It was later revealed that he had suffered a minor injury. Lack of bowling time for the other two adds the ambiguity of Indian squad.

5. Vice versa performance from pace attack:

Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma once again proved why they are the most deserving candidates in playing XI.

On the other hand, it was a sad performance from Mohammad Shami and Hardik Pandya which became one of the talking points at Chelmsford.

In the practice game, Umesh ended with the figures of four for 35. On the other hand, Ishant Sharma claimed three for 59.

Shami went wicketless in the match as he got a rough figure of 68 in 21 overs. Hardik Pandya, on the other hand, shares a similar fate as he conceded 54 runs in 12 overs.