It was not the same old story for India at Rajkot right from the toss to dropping catches to spinners under performance too a draw under virat at home, but it tested them quite a lot for good a head and for England it was not the start on the cards but the surface made things all easy after an historic loss under tough circumstances, which eventually bought their best game. Now moving from Rajkot to visakhapatnam is virtually like moving on to another planet where the actual test awaits for visitors from Thursday.
While England can take lot positives from Rajkot from opening with young Haseeb to broad who batted at no.11 showed their batting depth, and four centuries in the side tells England used most of the conditions on offer with some luck in favor too. But the most promising aspect for them is the way their spinners responded with little assistance on offer and edged the Indian experienced attack.
Although England know, it is not too often that visiting teams put India under pressure since their last visit in 2012, but the new England too have few players who can show the old resilience in the form of stokes and Ali who are the pillars of this side with the balance and temperament they had.
On the other hand for India the story would have been in a different manner if they held on the catches in the early hour of the match or if the spinners taken the attack especially in the second half. Although their batters showed much needed temperament in the first half but not the same in the second half, which might the reason of going with five specialist bowlers.
But it needed with the depth in the opposition line up and with the way virat responded it seems of a challenge to handle in pressure situations, and now with change in venue they do get a home advantage more unlike in Rajkot but it also test their batsmen against promising England spinners.
Meanwhile the pitch at Vizag will be a different challenge to handle with more turn on offer and it resembles a quite a bit of turner and with the debut test at the venue it may offer bit more for batsmen early on, adding to extra turn the visitors should also adapt to humid weather.
So with the conditions in focus and the performance England likely to stick with the same squad which offers them 3 spinning options and 3 pacers to work with and it is unlikely Anderson to return to the playing XI unless there is an fitness issue.
On the other side India have few selection headache to make with Rahul returning into the squad after an 60 & 100 in return of injury in the ongoing ranji season, so Gambhir is likely to make his way out after an unimpressive knocks in both the innings. Apart form that India may also surprise going with 4 bowers given a turner on offer.
At the end it is all about starting fresh in each session and test with previous confidence on offer for the both teams and the contest gonna lie between batting units of either sides facing spin challenge.
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