By: Tarish Bhatt
India are likely to head with their theory of five bowlers in the 1st Test against West Indies. Virat Kohli, India’s Test skipper, has hinted that he is unlikely to play seven batsmen in Antigua.
Kohli said that the Indian team will play with an aggressive mindset. He added that the visitors will be heading with five bowlers. The Indian captain also asked his batsmen to take responsibility and score enough runs.
“And as batsmen, we want to take responsibility,” Kohli said. “So, as a captain I’m always in favour of five bowlers. If you don’t take 20 wickets, it doesn’t matter if you score 700 runs, there’s no point.”
“We have been playing with that mindset for the last one-and-a-half-to-two years,” he added. “We will start this series with the same mindset, and see that our bowling is as strong as it needs to be to take 20 wickets.”
The Indian captain also hinted that KL Rahul might have to wait for his turn. Kohli said it is difficult to ignore a dominating player like Shikhar Dhawan from the playing XI. Dhawan’s form has been under scrutiny, while Rahul has struck two fifties in the practice matches.
“If you speak about KL Rahul and someone like Shikhar, it’s very difficult to take a call up front in the first match of a series,” Kohli said ahead of the 1st Test.
“Someone like Shikhar is a very dominant player,” he added. “He can dominate sessions and bring you into the Test match, especially in conditions like West Indies.”
Team India Expected Line-up: Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami.
