India kicks off their Sri Lanka itinerary from July 26 with the first Test to be played in Galle. The track here has always known to be in awe of spinners and keeping in mind the tendency of the pitch to support spinners, Gautam Gambhir has batted for playing a combination of 3:2.
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The discarded Indian batsman wants to play with three spinners and two pacers. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav are the automatic selection when talking of three spinners in the side. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are the two pacers which he wants in the playing XI,
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“I reckon you got to play Kuldeep and you got Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja where these three are different bowlers to fulfill the option of three spinners. Obviously, an off-spinner like Ravi Ashwin would come into play when Sri Lanka has four left-handers in their ranks. Jadeja is accurate to acclimatize to the conditions whereas Kuldeep Yadav will be a wicket-taking or a mystery option. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are the two seam bowling options who would make the conditions and these would be my Pacers,” he told ESPNcricinfo.
Last time when India was here in 2015, the first Test in Galle ended in just four days with visitors failing to chase a total of 176 in the fourth innings. They were flattened on a score of 112, with Ranagana Herath doing the damage with a seven-fer to topple Indian’s batting line-up on a penultimate day.
Learning lessons from that defeat, India can play with three spinners as all the three slow bowlers in the side can bat as well. Ashwin and Jadeja have shown credentials with the bat, whereas, Kuldeep is also a healthy contributor. He was the highest run-scorer for UP in the Ranji Trophy 2016/17.
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Coming to pace attack, Gambhir decided to dropped Ishant Sharma from the side who is the most experienced bowler in the pace lineup. Though he did not take many wickets in the home season, he was the player who was with the team and was fully-fit, unlike Shami, who was ruled out due to a knee injury during England series. The captain will surely find it difficult to pick between Shami and Ishant, as Umesh Yadav is an automatic selection. Talking of Bhuvnneeshwar Kumar, he has been the go to the bowler in limited overs cricket but not in Test cricket.
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