India vs England Cricket Test Series - Third Test At Leeds - India Will Be A Confident Starter

Hello Cricket Lovers,

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India and England will be playing the Third test match at Leeds in about an hour from now with India having won The Lord's test last week and will be a confident starter as they do not have much injury concerns as against England's.

Team Composition:

India:

India may not change their winning combination from Lord's unless they think there is considerable amount of spin expected to include either R Ashwin or Hanuma Vihari and that decision, they will be able to take after pitch inspection today.

So, the probable team composition for India might be as below:

1. KL Rahul
2. Rohit Sharma
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli
5. Ajinkya Rahane
6. Rishabh Pant
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Mohammed Shami
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Jasprit Bumrah and
11. Mohammed Siraj.

If at all more spin is needed, India may give chance to R Ashwin with him being India's best spinner, infact, World's best spinner right now.

Who he may replace?

Well,that will be a tricky one considering the batting that made possible for an Indian win by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj's 4 for in each of the innings means, these 3 might retain their place and Ishant Sharma might be the unlucky one to sit out if R Ashwin or Vihari has to come in.

Whatever the change, India will be a happy unit having been able to put hosts on back foot in this series with even there was a chance to win the First test unless there wasn't rain interruption on last day.

India's batting and bowling are in top class right now with openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul providing good opening stands and India's middle order has also slwoly back in form in the form of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane and the other 2, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant have been decent so far.

India's lower order batting including the all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been far better compared to England's with even Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah also scoring runs and augurs well for team India.

We don't have to speak much about the Indian bowling unit as they have actually outplayed the more talked England unit and the rise of Mohammed Siraj is a big plus for team India.

England:

On the other hand, England will be having much problems having lost the test and their batting is not clicking except for their captain Joe Root.

Although, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali showed some glimpses of form at The Lord's, they are still not playing confidently and that will be a concern for Joe Root and England.

With Mark Wood ruled out of Third test, England will have to bring in a new bowler and there will be toss up between Craig Overton and Saqib Mahmood and it's more likely that, they might go with Craig Overton as he can bat a bit too to add few more runs to boos the confidence of England failing batting unit.

So, below might be the combination for England with Moeen Ali continuing as lone spinner and they have another option in their captain Joe Root who has a 5 for against India!!!

1. Rory Burns
2. Haseeb Hameed
3. Dawid Malan
4. Joe Root
5. Jonny Bairstow
6. Jos Buttler
7. Moeen Ali
8. Sam Curran
9. Craig Overton
10. Ollie Robinson and
11. James Anderson.

England's opening pair hasn't been able to give good starts and there are more changes at the top and even middle order isn't firing for them with captain Joe Root having to bail them out from the low scores for them in both the tests played so far.

While England's middle and lower order looks more balanced with almost 3 all-rounders in Moeen Ali, Sam Curran and Ollie Robinson, they haven't been able to contribute much with the bat and hence, their lower order looks far lean compared to India's.

India have fond memories of playing and winning tests at Leeds having won their last test here back in 2002 and the win was by a margin of an innings and 46 runs thanks to tons by 3 greats of the game, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly.

Infact, India has won the last 2 tests played at Leeds having even won in 1986.

While the history is backing India, England will be waiting to take revenge and stop India form taking 2-0 lead and more than the series win, both teams will also eyeing all important points to boos up their team's chances of making it to the final of ICC World Test Championship and India are actually ahead right now with that win at The Lord's.

If India can get the prized wicket of England's captain early, they will be ensuring half of the work is done to win this test as Joe Root has been the only run scorer for them and India will be well aware of that to attack him early and force him to make some mistakes.

Few records up for grabs as both teams battle it out.

Indian captain Virat Kohli is 60 odd runs away from becoming the fastest to score 23K international while his opener Rohit Sharma will be looking to score 170 odd runs to reach 3K runs in test cricket.

On the bowling side, 3 Indians will be in a chance to reach a milestone as Jasprit Bumrah is 5 wickets short of reaching 100 test wickets and if he can do so in Leeds he will be the fastest Indian seamer to take Hundred wickets in tests.

While it's doubtful whether Ishant Sharma plays or not, if he does play, he will be in a chance to be the second most successful Indian pacer after Javgal Srinath as he is shy of 1 wicket of Zaheer Khan's tally.

Another Indian pacer, Mohammed Shami has a chance too to create history as he needs 9 wickets more to take 200 wickets in test Cricket.

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Wow!!! so much at stake and a win for India with few individual records for Indians at Leeds will make it more memorable one for all of us, isn't it?

Thanks guys, that is all I wanted to right now as I have to get ready to watch the test mach :)

Wishing you all great day ahead :)

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