Selection puzzles and keeping faith – what England and India must do next


Jimmy Anderson may struggle to displace England’s in-form bowlers while India need to call time on struggling Gautam Gambhir

Jimmy Anderson says he is fit and appears keen to play in the second Test in Visakhapatnam – although he did not appear to mention the venue by name. This alone raises questions: even if the selectors decide it’s not worth it then leaving out England’s record wicket-taker is a decision they will have to justify. And if Anderson does come into the team, who drops out? Stuart Broad, the other senior bowler, was rested only one Test ago. Dropping either of the other two seamers, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, not only means leaving out an in-form player but weakens a batting order who have still to prove their strength despite producing four hundreds in the first Test. The other option is to drop a spinner and Zafar Ansari would probably be the man to miss out after Adil Rashid impressed with seven wickets in Rajkot. However the talk of the town is Visakhapatnam will be spin-friendly, so England should be wary of altering the 3-3 balance of the attack. Dan Lucas

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