sandeep

And what will you do if/when Ashwin pulls up lame with a groin injury on D2, and your rookie 3rd pacer is also leaking runs? Ask Vihari to bowl 40 overs? This is not an empty risk.

Selecting Thakur is inexplicable. At least Chahar has something going for him as a guy who can really move the ball, and has legit potential with the bat, relative to where he bats.

I'd really re-visit the title - you can 'pivot' to a different one early in the game. "Inquisitor" has quite the negative connotations associated with it. Just my 2 cents.

I don't think the Indian team can afford to bench Jadeja. Given the batting he provides, given the control he provides, and the over-rate management he completely delivers on. Add his fielding. The guy is a difference maker for the bowling attack. Unless he's not fit, I do not see Ash playing ahead of him as a front-line spinner. Don't get me wrong, I love Ash's bowling. If he's fully fit and in rhythm. The former consistently becomes a question mark with him. That's the problem.

You can say what you want. Fact remains that our team won in Australia. And they lost 2-1 in SA after being in a very, very good position on day 1 of the 1st test. SA escaped to 300 odd in the 1st innings after being 12/3 thanks to Bhuvi. Dhawan dropped a crucial catch in the slips at 140 odd for 5. And then ABDV saved the Saffer backsides. That was a very winnable test for India if a couple of things play out differently. The England tour scoreline may read 1-4, but we know that it was a lot closer than that. And again, think back to the crucial first test. Kuptaan Wrogn brand ambass

This is the one thing that makes me hesitate in supporting Siraj. If Shami was injured in place of Ishant, I would not hesitate - it would be Siraj all the way. But given that its Bumrah and Shami making up the rest of the pace attack, the accuracy and control aspect of the 3rd seamer role gets magnified in importance. Those aren't really Siraj's calling cards.

Frankly I do not expect much from Mayank. But that's not a bad place to be. One thing going for him? He is mentally in quite possibly, the best space of his life. And also in very good form with the bat. Whatever he manages to do, or not do - its going to be close to his best possible effort. So maybe he can come through. At least a couple of times. I like the guy - more for his mental strength than his batting technique. But the former is often underrated.

Given the lack of Ishant, this makes Jadeja an automatic starter for me. He can provide control and bowl a big chunk of overs, managing the over rate as well as the scoring rate. Absolute must-have in the team.

For one thing, I wouldn't expect a test batsman to play a 6th stump delivery trying to glide it with an open face to gully. Upwards of 90% of the time, that 1st ball will be left alone by batsmen. Especially against the new ball. And Rana left a gateway of India between bat and pad for that 2nd one to go through. Both "batsmen" were under the T20 pressure to make every ball count. Just you asking the question "hows it different" - says it all really.

T20 wickets are completely different than tests.

Don't disagree with most of this. My only point is that claiming that Siraj gets "more movement" than Saini does, isn't really based on fact. Gun to my head, I'm likely to pick Siraj over Saini as well, if someone can assure me that Siraj can be managed to avoid turning into spraygun a la young Umesh Yadav, in a crunch situation. The composition of India's first choice bowling attack - Bumrah, Shami, Ishant - was such that we could afford to have Shami leak a bit in pursuit of wickets, because we could rely on Ishant to be a reliable workhorse - one bowling a bunch of quality t

I have, I even watched the Windies board live stream of the A tour 4 day games there. Siraj is a very good bowler, but 'movement' isn't exactly his calling card. For example in that windies A game, there was another bowler Sandeep Warrier who was bowling beautiful outswingers, while Siraj was not getting close to that kind of movement.

How does that translate to more "movement" specifically? Its sheer conjecture.

With Kohli missing due to baby, and Dhawan missing due to sucking in tests, we are almost guaranteed an upgrade.