India’s legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar has said that given the hot conditions in Southampton, he expects both Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin to be part of India’s playing XI against New Zealand when the two teams clash in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2021 Final).
He feels that the heat in Southampton will cause the pitch to dry out sooner and assist the spinners early and hence India should go with both Jadeja and Ashwin. Gavaskar is part of the match’s commentary panel and is currently in Southampton with first-hand knowledge about the pitch and conditions.
WTC 2021 Final: No Jadeja, Ishant in Sanjay Manjrekar's India XI for final against New Zealand
“In Southampton, it’s been boiling hot over the last few days so the pitch will definitely be dry and help spin as the match progresses, so yes both Ashwin and Jadeja will play,” Gavaskar told PTI in an exclusive interview.
“That (Ashwin and Jadeja together) also gives depth to the batting as well as give a fine balance to the bowling attack. For the series later (vs England) much will depend on the weather and pitch conditions,” he added.
Gavaskar was also asked about Virat Kohli and what makes him so special across all conditions and countries.
“The influence of one-day cricket had made some batsmen play the ball on the rise or through the line as it is called. Most times, they get away where the ball doesn’t move but in England where it moves, it’s important to get closer to the ball. Virat Kohli hardly ever plays through the line even on flat pitches and he plays late covering any movement off the pitch and that’s why he is successful on all types of surfaces.
In the recent series against England in India, he didn’t get a century but his 60 odd in Chennai was a wonderful exhibition on how to play spin bowling. He was smelling the ball and that’s the hallmark of all great batsmen,” the master batsman said.
Gavaskar also said that Rohit Sharma will gain confidence from the fact that he scored a brilliant century against South Africa in Southampton during the 2019 World Cup in tough and testing conditions.
“The century he got against South Africa was on a tough pitch and cold conditions and he made the adjustments beautifully. Now two years later he is even more experienced so don’t be surprised if he repeats that performance in this series too,” Gavaskar said.
He also pointed out that Rishabh Pant’s emergence as a pure match-winner at no.6 has given India the ability to try out variable bowling options as per conditions.
“Rishabh Pant has now got even better in shot selection as we saw in Australia. His batting allows the team to go in with an extra spinner or pacer. Expect some game-changing innings from him in the summer,” he signed off.
(PTI inputs)
