I suspect the counter argument is that Stokes scoring slowly puts pressure on the new batsmen coming in and that amplifies the collapse
England have changed their team balance. Hales isn’t playing. There’s less batting than normal. If you were going to post that then today was the wrong day to do it. They’ve picked five front-line bowlers and then there’s Stokes as the sixth bowler and Root as the seventh.
Another reason to protect Ashwin's average then by dropping him away again.
Ashwin should be the supporting act. Pandya shouldn't play. Test XI:
Sounds reasonable. India wouldn't have to leave out Dhawan or Pujara if they go in with six specialist batsmen (feels weird to say it but Kohli will be coming in at 5 in that case). Its not like Pandya is going to contribute much with bowl anyway. On the other hand, English wickets are looking really dry if the tour so far is anything to judge, so going in with Ashwin as the 2nd spinner may not be so bad, so its a really tough choice. Not for Kohli and team management though, as we know they have too much faith in Pandya and really want him to work out as a long-term prospect. In all likelihood they're going to go in with the same squad as first SA test except (hopefully) for one less pacer to make room for Kuldeep.
Given his current form and that India persisted with him in the SA despite poor showing, I'd say he will be played ahead of either Vijay or Pujara at least in the 1st test (if India choose to go in with 5 bats, 1 keeper). Quite confident that he'll be dropped by the 2nd match though.
England have stacked their bowling today, not their batting.
