Second Test: India v England
Venue: Mohali Date: Fri 19 December KO: 0400 GMT Coverage: TMS on Radio 4 LW and 5 Live sports extra, live text commentary on BBC Sport website, and live on Sky Sports 1
Kevin Pietersen's style, in his brief term as England captain, has always been to announce his team the day before a match starts.  Panesar is coming under pressure after his underwhelming display in Chennai |
It says much about the man: up-front and bold, while some other captains prefer to keep their cards close to their chest and make the opposition wait. That Pietersen has not been able to name his team on Thursday clearly illustrates how undecided he is. Not only about the way some of his players performed on the final day in Chennai, but also about how the pitch in Mohali will play over the next five days. Despite his extra thinking time, it might be that Pietersen still names an unchanged team. Ian Bell finds himself in the spotlight again - more for the manner in which he got out in the second innings when he lunged hard at the leg-spinner and gave a catch to short-leg than for his lack of runs. Owais Shah is a very skilled player of spin and would be the obvious change but his last innings came more than three weeks ago in the Cuttack one-day international. There is also an argument for promoting Matt Prior to number six. He batted very capably in both innings in Chennai while Andrew Flintoff is not a good starter against spin bowling. Having taken only three wickets on the final day, it is more tempting to look for changes in the bowling attack.  | 606: DEBATE |
Monty Panesar had a very poor day and while part of that could come down to general rustiness, his whole approach to bowling needs to be seriously looked at. When he first comes on to bowl, Panesar stands impassively while the captain sets the field for him, and I have never before seen any bowler - but particularly a spinner - fail to tinker with his field, or suggest field changes during his spell. He simply bowls like a robot, ball after identical ball, until he is taken off. Panesar remains a tremendous talent, but after 34 Tests he really should be showing more nous and intuition than this. He will still play, and since Graeme Swann out-bowled him it's hard to see him giving way to another quick bowler. The conditions are hard to read in that there are damp, dewy nights here with bright, sunny, wintry days. The pitch looks certain to take spin and is also abrasive enough possibly to encourage reverse-swing. If a change is to be made, it would be to bring in Stuart Broad either at the expense of James Anderson or Steve Harmison, both of whom now appear to be have been "Sehwag-ed" once too often.
| 
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?