It may be a wait till match day toss time to find out if young Shaw will get his debutant cap at the Kennington Oval if we go by India Head Coach Ravi Shastri’s press conference statements when asked about Rishab Pant before the third test match.
Too early rush in another young blood after wicket-keeper batsman Pant – it’s up for debate. But looking at the poor outings KL Rahul had or success of young Curran – fancy a thought Shaw may get his chance.
KL Rahul had a tough time adjusting his techniques to the English conditions. He started well in a couple of innings but only to fall back to his problems against genuine swinging conditions. We have seen adjusting him trying to adjust to the conditions, watching the ball a lot more and leaving the ball outside off as the test series progressed. However, he couldn’t make his impact in the series yet. It may be good for Rahul to have some time outside the Indian dressing room to reshape his skills and technique, get his confidence back and make his way to the opening slot again to the team. As Joe Root mentioned, it has definitely Ali to get back to form after missing out few matches, went back to playing for his county.
Shikar Dhawan equally didn’t have a great tour in England tests – may be better than Rahul and Vijay were. He had his starts but never converted it to big scores. He is expected to retain his position and along with Shaw will give India an opportunity to have two attacking batsmen opening the innings. We need to be optimistic about this opening pair. However, it’s only time will tell us how effective they will be against the excellence of Jimmy Anderson and much effective Stuart Broad.
Shaw has been excellent in domestic and India A games and will carry the expectations to perform well. Billions of Indians will have hope on him to play Anderson and Broad better than anyone. Let’s wait for the 8th of September.
Love the way Ravi Shastri says – you will know by 11 am match day “about the playing 11. We shall wait – for the 11 am on match day. Let’s wait to see if Virat Kohli makes a couple of changes for the final Test match and finally hope young Shaw gets his chance!!!
