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The Shubman Gill-led Indian cricket team is grueling hard in the nets ahead of the second Test, which is scheduled to be played from July 2 to 6 at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The Men in Blue will hope to level the series in Birmingham after going down in the opening match of the five-match Test series at Headingley, Leeds, which saw them post mammoth 835 runs on the board across the two innings along with five centuries.
However, they will eye to field their best possible combination and come out on the field as a unit, Team India’s assistant coach dropped a big hint on their probable XI. Speaking at the pre-match press conference in Birmingham, Ryan ten Doeschate, although did not reveal much, but came close to confirming that two spinners will be part of the XI.
He’s very close to getting a game: Ryan ten Doeschate on Nitish Kumar Reddy’s return to India XI
Addressing the pre-match presser, the Indian assistant coach when inquired about Nitish Kumar Reddy getting a game, replied, “He’s very close to getting a game. He was fantastic in Australia.” “Coming into the team and playing the way he did, we just felt on balance for the last game we wanted to go with a bowling all-rounder which we thought Shardul (Thakur) was slightly ahead on the bowling front," ten Doeschate continued.
"We are looking at ways of rejigging the puzzle so we can get a batting all-rounder in. Obviously, Nitish is our premium batting all-rounder at the moment. I would say he has a very good chance to play this Test," he added. The former cricketer when inquired of the team combination said, “There is a very strong chance of playing two spinners. It's just which two we play. And that goes back to the previous question about juggling the batting depth. All three spinners are bowling very nicely."
India’s squad for five-match Test series vs England
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana
