Indian veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik believes that India would go with the same playing 11 for the 2nd Test against West Indies starting on Thursday. In the 1st test against West Indies, India secured a dominating win over the Men in Maroon as the home was outplayed in all three departments.
Indian team has handed a debut to two promising youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ishan Kishan in the 1st match of the test series following their consistent performance in the IPL and the domestic cricket and the Men in Blue will look to groom some new players for the next World Test Championship cycle starting from this West Indies tour.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, Dinesh Karthik does not expect changes in the playing 11, as they have got the right team for the 2nd test and hailed the Indian spinning duo Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin for their memorable performance in the 1st test and also praised Yashasvi Jaiswal for his impressive debut.
“India won’t make any changes be it their mindset, skillset, or playing XI. They will bring the same brand of cricket to the table. They have been very strong, very sure about what they want. The Ashwin-Jadeja combo has done wonders.
Debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal has done well. There is no room for a change unless there’s a change. They have had a five-day break. In the Caribbean, you generally go to the beaches and that’s what they must’ve done for the first two-three days and then they would’ve practiced for two days,” Dinesh Karthik said.
India team management has invested in the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan, and Jaydev Unadkat for the first test as this series will be a good test for them to play at different conditions and the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar also can learn a lot being part of the dressing room.
West Indies Have A Mental Block Against India – Dinesh Karthik
Dinesh Karthik believes that this game will be more important for the West Indies as they haven’t won a single test match against India in the last 20 years and reckons they would look to turn things around in the 2nd test and wants to assess the conditions to select the playing 11 according to it.
“This becomes an even more important one for West Indies because they haven’t won a Test against since 2002. That’s almost two decades. They would want to turn that around but they have a mental block against India,” he asserted.
They need to find a way to sort that out. Do they need to make some changes? There’s a fast bowler, Shanon Gabriel, do they bring him in place of one of the seamers or do they strengthen their batting by dropping an extra seamer? Kirk McKenzie is an option,” Dinesh Karthik added.
West Indies team has struggled in recent years, as they could not perform well in the bilateral series and ICC events, as the two-time T20 champions failed to qualify for the Super 12 of the 2022 T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup later this year in India and also suffered a humiliating defeat against India in the 1st test of the new WTC cycle.