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Beating England without Bumrah 'not impossible' for India captain Gill / Photo: © AFP
Beating England without Bumrah 'not impossible' for India captain Gill
India captain Shubman Gill is adamant his side can still achieve a series-levelling win against England even if Jasprit Bumrah, the world's top-ranked Test bowler, is left out of the side that plays at Edgbaston.
India are 1-0 down with four to play after last week's five-wicket loss in the first Test at Headingley.
Outstanding fast bowler Bumrah took 5-83 in the first innings but went wicketless second time around as England made light of chasing a target of 371.
The 31-year-old is returning from a back injury and before the series India made it clear he was likely to feature in just three matches.
The third Test at Lord's starts just four days after the scheduled end of the game in Birmingham.
"Bumrah is definitely available, we just want to see how to manage his workload," Gill told a pre-match press conference at Edgbaston on Tuesday.
"You definitely do miss your best bowler if he's not playing, but I think we knew prior to the series he would only play three Tests... We had plans for who would be playing if he was not playing. We will take that call this (Tuesday) evening."
At Headingley, India became the only team in the history of first-class cricket, which now spans more than 60,000 games, to score five individual hundreds -- including one from Gill in his first Test as captain -- and still lose.
Batting collapses cost them dear, with the tourists losing 7-41, after they had been 430-3 in the first innings, and 6-31, from 333-4, in the second in Leeds.
Balancing the need for a match-winning 20 wickets with the requirement to score sufficient runs is the underlying issue now facing India as they bid for a first Test-match win in nine attempts at Edgbaston.
Either spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar or paceman Nitish Kumar Reddy could replace Shardul Thakur, largely ineffective at Headingley, while spinner Kuldeep Yadav is a proven wicket-taker but much less effective batsman.
Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana and Akash Deep, meanwhile, are vying for the daunting task of deputising for Bumrah.
Regardless of the composition of their side, Gill said he remained confident in India's ability to level the series.
"We definitely want to win this Test match. I believe the India cricket team that has come here is the best Indian cricket team and we are able to beat any side."
D.Czajkowski--GL
