Turnaround at Oval?

London, September 1

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Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane’s wretched form and senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s probable inclusion will have the most significant impact on the Indian team’s efforts to move on from their Leeds debacle when they take on a stronger England in the fourth Test at the Oval tomorrow.

The high of an inspirational victory at the Lord’s was followed by back-to-back batting debacles at Headingley and the penultimate game at Oval would certainly have an impact on both sides as the series heads towards its business end. Skipper Virat Kohli had said a victory at Lord’s didn’t guarantee a win in the next Test and a defeat at Headingley doesn’t mean that an encore would happen at the Oval with the series locked at 1-1.

Not the one to believe that outside noise (fans and experts) should be given much credence, the India captain, in his heart of hearts, knows that all is not well with his batting unit and the biggest problem is the performance of the three middle-order stalwarts — himself, Cheteshwar Pujara and his deputy Rahane.

Pujara might have redeemed himself with a knock of 91 which was high on “intent quotient” but the same can’t be said about Rahane, whose form is shaky despite a crucial 61 in the second innings at the Lord’s. In all likelihood, Rahane would get another chance but over the past two years, his inconsistency has hurt this team badly. What many people have found baffling is that even a hundred at Melbourne or a fifty at the Lord’s hasn’t inspired confidence and he has never looked like getting back into some kind of form.

A total of 95 in five innings at an average of 19 is not an indicator of Rahane’s qualities but Suryakumar Yadav or an orthodox batter like Hanuma Vihari might bring in a bit of freshness.

Meanwhile, opener Rohit Sharma on Wednesday toppled his skipper Virat Kohli to become top-ranked Indian batsman after being placed fifth in the latest ICC men’s Test Player Rankings. Rohit’s scores of 19 and 59 in the third Test lifted him one place to a career-best fifth position, seven rating points more than Kohli for an aggregate of 773. The last time someone other than Kohli was the top-ranked India batter was in November 2017, when Cheteshwar Pujara was second and Kohli fifth. — PTI

PITCH REPORT

The last time England and India played at the ground, in 2018, four hundreds were scored at the batting-friendly wicket. Spin could play a significant part. In a county match in July, the visitors, Somerset, were bowled out for 69 in their second innings. Indian off-spinner R Ashwin took 6/27 for Surrey.

Numbers game

1971 The year India last won at The Oval; it was their maiden Test victory in England. Since then, India have drawn five and lost three matches at the ground

1398 Runs scored by Joe Root in 2021 so far. He needs 84 to pass Michael Vaughan’s England record for Test runs in a calendar year. Root is now No. 1 in Test batting rankings for the first time since 2015

5 Wickets Ravichandran Ashwin (413) needs to go past Harbhajan Singh (417) and become India’s 3rd-highest wicket-taker in Tests, behind Anil Kumble (619) and Kapil Dev (434)