I think it’s perfectly fair and fine to pick your team based on conditions and the opponent.1)Ashwin
2)Pant
3)Virat
4)Karun Nair
5)
6)Pandya
7
8)
9)Shami
10))Ishant
11)Bumrah
I never imagined at the beginning of this tour that I would struggle to select a playing 11 out of 18 member squad. Seems drastic to open with those two but we might not go much worse than this. Such is our condition that Hardik who should be the first to be out from team has to be now in as he looked fine with bat and bowl at least in last match. Fill in the blanks for remaining spots please. I have no idea.
Cricket in my view is set in its way. Not many forward thinkers watch cricket and lots of people are scared to think outside the box. I like your idea of Ashwin opening. I already mentioned him as a possible number three a few pages back, but opener might be a better idea to be honest.
I would be tempted to open with Ashton and Kohli and would down from there. I’d have to check the ins and outs (strengths, weaknesses etc) of a few players to fully assess this as I don’t know much about india’s Fringe players and players yet to play a test. You want players with level headed personalities and determined characters ideally in the top 6. 7-10 free thinkers and 11 as a pure bowler. In my view. England are so tough to beat in these conditions for a team from the background , climate and culture of India. I predicted 5-0 or 4-1 pre series, so the start of the series doesn’t at all surprise me. I think India are going to have to think outside the box to avoid 5-0
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