India was expected to go with a new opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma in the first Test against England. As the first-choice opener, Shubman Gill suffered a shin injury and was ruled out of the entire Test. Meanwhile, Mayank Agarwal also concussed a head injury ahead of the match in a practice session. Later the injury was found serious and he was ruled out of the first Test match.
India decided to go with the opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma in the first Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Also, the openers did a great job as they had a 97 runs partnership while batting first innings.
Meanwhile, speaking on his YouTube channel, the former Australian spinner Brad Hogg stated India will be disappointed as they were unable to clinch the victory in the first Test. Notably, the match was washed out due to rain.
Mayank Agarwal is back in the nets 🙌 #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/uchJHhy3oc
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) August 10, 2021
Hogg also suggested that India should open with Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma at Lord’s and Rahul should bat at no.3.As he believes that Cheteshwar Pujara hasn’t done a good job for India in recent times. Brad Hogg stated:
“India will be disappointed that they are not 1-0 up in the series because of the English rain. I don’t think India will change their playing eleven. The only change that they will think about making will be bringing Mayank Agarwal to open the batting and may push Rahul to No.3 because Pujara has been out of sorts. Over the last 10 innings that he has played, he has not scored over 40”.
India unlikely to drop Cheteshwar Pujara: Brad Hogg
However, Later Brad Hogg also opined that India might not drop Cheteshwar Pujara and will try to keep the same XI. Brad Hogg asserted:
“But I don’t think they will do that (drop Pujara for Agarwal), I think they will keep the same eleven and try to keep that positive momentum that they had gained in the first Test match.
Meanwhile, India might have to make a change in playing XI forcibly because Shardul Thakur has hamstring problems. Notably, Shardul picked 2 crucial wickets for 42 runs. Meanwhile, in the second innings, he once again performed well and picked 2 wickets for 37 runs. However, he might miss the second Test at Lord’s due to an injury.