Opener KL Rahul added to Indian squad for 2nd Test

Fit-again KL Rahul has earned a recall to the Indian side as the 16th member of the squad for the second Test against England starting 17th of November at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Vizag. “He had an injury in Kanpur”. He was not available for Test and ODIs against New Zealand. “I could have spent a lot of time doing rehab in Bengaluru with the physio and spent time in the gym but until and unless I had played a proper cricket game, I wouldn’t have known how fit I was”.

He accepted that the first innings didn’t go his way, but that he began to get into rhythm in the second innings when the pitch started to help the spinners a bit.

Asked if England will be unchanged, Cook said: “I can’t quite answer that just yet”.

India’s spin force of Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra failed to get the desired success on a fast Rajkot track, sharing nine wickets in the two innings. He has played here before.

Taking the 2012 rubber against England into account, India have played five home series before this. He hasn’t done wonders to himself and team and looked out of sorts. Flat for the first three days, and then turned more and more.

“Jimmy has come over and done really well and he is as confident as he can be in terms of where he’s at but he hasn’t got miles in his legs”.

“Both [Mohammed] Shami and Umesh [Yadav] bowled exceptionally well on that surface”.

But with his 30th Test ton tucked away in his back pocket, a record fifth hundred in India by a visiting batsman, Cook could be a little happier with the demands placed on an England captain.

“If you look at the only aspect where we probably let ourselves down, it was in the catching. And, here I am back in the Indian team”, Rahul said on Wednesday.

An area that India know they need to improve, though, is their catching. “We can still play an extra bowling option and keep putting pressure on the opposition”, said captain Virat Kohli. “Good cricket wicket”, Cook said.

England are the only team to win a series in India in the last decade and have a very good understanding of the conditions. He bowled outstandingly well in the last Test. There were six Test centuries, two from our side and four from their side. Do they take the psychological edge heading into the second Test match in Visakhapatnam? They can take a lot from that performance and we as a side can take a lot from that. Despite England’s improvement from their Bangladesh tour, Kohli believed the England spinners never outperformed the Indians. We will select team as per our strategy. It did take time for me to get my rhythm, especially since I was playing a Test after a long time. We have to make sure we put the hardwork in for the next Test.