The first day of the second Test at Lord’s between India and England got washed out even without the toss taking place. So, there was no relief from the suspense over India’s playing XI.
Rain finally ceased. Bright and sunny sky prevailed in London. And it was finally time for toss on the second day at Lord’s. Toss also meant that finally all speculation regarding Virat Kohli’s preferred eleven would eventually be put to rest.
As it turned out, Kohli continued the trend of not going with same eleven in successive Tests.
Shikhar Dhawan was dropped to make way for Pujara while KL Rahul was pushed up to take the openers slot.
In the bowling department, India decided to go with two spinners. So, Umesh Yadav was dropped to make space for Kuldeep Yadav. Meanwhile, Ishant, Shami and Ashwin retained their place.
In the first Test at Edgbaston the entire Indian batting line-up failed to deliver except skipper Virat Kohli.
Shikhar Dhawan managed scores of 26 and 13 in both the innings which was better than the likes of Vijay, Rahul and Rahane. Dhawan was the third highest scorer for the side.
Therefore, many on Twitter believed it was wrong to make Dhawan the scapegoat when the entire batting line-up failed at Edgbaston.
There were also fair share of people on Twitter who believed that dropping Dhawan was a good call, especially after his poor performance in the slips in the first Test.
Since June 2014, Dhawan has been dropped five times in the last 12 Tests India has played away from home. In India’s last overseas Test series in South Africa earlier this year, Dhawan was dropped after the first Test in the three-match Test series.
Despite overcast conditions at Lord’s, Virat Kohli went with an extra spinner and more importantly went with Kuldeep Yadav.
Twitteratis welcomed the bold and aggressive move from Captain Kohli and lauded the inclusion of Kuldeep in the playing eleven at Lord’s. But people criticised the move to drop Umesh and instead suggested dropping Pandya.
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