INDvWI 1st Test: Bowling attack to dictate the fate of Hanuma Vihari and Rohit Sharma

Both have played together once, that was in Melbourne, when Vihari was deputed to open the innings with Mayank Agarwal and Rohit was slotted in at six.

India vs West Indies 1st Test, West Indies vs India 1st Test, IND vs WI 1st Test, WI vs IND 1st Test, India's tour of West Indies 2019

Rohit played a brace of fluent but unfulfilled knocks, in the first innings in Adelaide and the second in Melbourne. (Source: Instagram/indiancricketteam)

At the heart of picking India’s middle order is a unique dilemma. Both Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari fared reasonably in the Australia series, neither too flatteringly to lock their names in nor too abysmally to be out of the fray. Rohit played a brace of fluent but unfulfilled knocks, in the first innings in Adelaide and the second in Melbourne. Vihari, true to his nature, demonstrated his unsung utility, opening the innings in adverse circumstances in Melbourne — where his eight off 66 balls was raved about by skipper Virat Kohli in the press conference — then subsequently showed his stomach for a fight in the middle order and chimed in with his useful off-spin. Both put on impressive shown in the practice game.

Both have played together once, that was in Melbourne, when Vihari was deputed to open the innings with Mayank Agarwal and Rohit was slotted in at six. It was merely circumstantial that they played together. Vihari had to open as both Rahul and Vijay were in wretched form. But now that Rahul has returned and the team management keen to reinvest faith in his potential, Vihari should be considered as a middle-order batsman, making it a straight shootout with Rohit for the number six slot.

Kohli called this a “happy headache”. “Obviously, it’s always a positive, from a team perspective, that there are more than one option for the same spot. And both of them have done really well. Rohit with that 63 (not out) in Melbourne and Vihari whenever he has been asked to do something. Some of his knocks have gone unsung like the 8 in Melbourne. A lot of people fail to understand the significance of it. They will wonder what’s it about those eight runs. But it was efforts like these that helped us win that all-important Test and then the series,” he reflected.

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Choosing between the pair would eventually whittle down to India’s bowling combination, whether they are going with three pacers and a spinner or two pacers and as many spinners. If it’s a three-pronged pace attack, Vihari might get the headstart due to his bowling abilities, more so if that lone spinner is Ravindra Jadeja.

Correspondingly, Rohit stands a better chance if India play with two spinners.

“We will read the pitch and then pick the team accordingly. And the combination of our bowling will have a bearing on the batting line-up as well. We will have to see how the balance works out,” Kohli said.

If his counterpart Jason Holder’s assessment of the pitch is any indicator, India could stuff three pacers. “To me it looks like a bowl-first pitch, the one that we got against England in the last game here,” he observed. The strip does have a smattering of grass, but generally curators retain some of it to keep the strip firm. More so in North Sound, with its sandy base and the tendency to crumble.

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But a bowl-first, seamer-friendly pitch carries a risk for the West Indies as well. They could be at the receiving end of some hostile fast bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Co. “We are equipped to deal with all sorts of situations. So it doesn’t really matter whether we bat or bowl first,” observed Kohli.

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