Birmingham, June 30 (IANS) Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s assistant coach, said Jasprit Bumrah is available for selection for the second Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test against England, starting at Edgbaston on July 2. At the same time, ten Doeschate admitted that the Indian team think-tank is ready to make a call on Bumrah playing in the match at the very last minute’.

So far, in the training sessions in Birmingham, Bumrah, who picked a five-wicket haul in Leeds, has varied between bowling full throttle and having chats with various team members and head coach Gautam Gambhir.

“He’s available for the game, obviously. We know from the start he’s only going to play three out of the five. He’s had eight days to recover from the last Test. But given conditions, workload, and how we think we can best manage for the next four games, we haven’t made a call on that.”

“We’re going to see what the other guys are doing with their workload as well. So technically, yes, he’s available. But we haven’t made a decision on whether he’s going to play or not yet,” ten Doeschate said to reporters in the press conference on Monday.

With Bumrah set to play only three out of five Tests due to workload management, his participation at Edgbaston is still a mystery.

“So if we feel like there’s value in playing him in this Test, we’ll make that call at the very last minute. But I’m talking about whether, and how, the pitch is going to play. Are we better off holding him back for Lord’s and maybe Manchester or the Oval? So it’s all those factors.”

“But you’ve seen him train yesterday, he also trained a little bit today. It’s not like he’s not fit to play. It’s just trying to fit those puzzle pieces to get the most out of him, and what we know we do have from him,” he added.

In India’s five-wicket defeat at Headingley, the visitors dropped six catches, with Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping four chances. At the practice session on Monday, India practised with Karun Nair at the first slip, KL Rahul at the second, and skipper Shubman Gill at the third slip.

In the fourth slip and gully, where Jaiswal fielded at Headingley, India practised with B. Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Kumar Reddy, respectively. Ten Doeschate cited the need for versatility in close catching positions and managing Jaiswal’s confidence behind him being moved out of the slip cordon.

“Look, I think we always want depth in the catching department. In England, you’re always going to have four catchers at some stage in the game. Yashasvi has been a very good catcher for us. We want to manage his confidence. There’s also an argument for the short leg being a very important position, particularly if we are going to play two spinners.”

“We want to pick more guys in that position. So I think the more versatile we are as a fielding unit, the more guys can do more jobs. Maybe just give Yashasvi a break from catching in the gully for a little while. His hands are quite sore. We want to get his confidence back up,” he concluded.

Though the weather forecasts in England are saying rain will come on days 1, 4, and 5, the dry nature of the pitch at Edgbaston might get India to play two spinners, with Washington Sundar being the close contender for the second spinner’s slot ahead of Kuldeep Yadav’s left-arm wrist-spin.

“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. Washi is batting very nicely. So it’s just which combination do we go with? All-rounder spinner or the out-and-out spinner?”

“Obviously you have to play the bowling all-rounder again. So there are so many different variables. It’s quite grassy and patchy, and it’s quite dry underneath. But there’s also rain forecast for Wednesday. So again, trying to weigh up the two options of how we want to go attack-wise. But I’m pretty sure two spinners will play in this Test,” added ten Doeschate.

He signed off by saying seam-batting all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy could get a look-in, with Shardul Thakur to make way for him. “He’s very close to getting a game. Obviously, 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 the bowling all-rounder, which we thought Shardul was slightly ahead on the bowling front. We’re 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. So I would say he has a very good chance to play this Test,” he added.

–IANS

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