Essex vs India, Practice Match, Day 3, Review: Visitors end the practice game on a decent note

The Indian cricket team had a great practice game against Essex. Some of the shortcomings of the batsmen and the bowlers were clearly to be seen. This game has given the Indian players a great chance to rectify them before the Birmingham Test.

Moreover, playing with the Dukes ball on a green surface will only help the team prepare better for the upcoming stern test. We also have what could be a clear possible combination going into the First Test. We could also see some surprises in the final XI.

With Shikhar Dhawan having a nightmare of a game, we might see KL Rahul opening with Murali Vijay. At No 3 is the ever so reliable Cheteshwar Pujara who will be followed by the skipper Virat Kohli. Ajinkya Rahane, having spent some good time in the middle is expected to bat at No 5. He will be followed by Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya.

However, there are a few questions related to the bowling attack. Virat hasn’t used his spinners much in this game and it will be interesting to see how many of them feature in the final XI. Both Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav have definitely made a spot for themselves in the XI with their performance. Either of Shardul Thakur or Mohammed Shami will be picked. It will be interesting to see as to which spinner will be picked. On that note, here is how things fared on the third day of this game:

Essex gets really close to India’s total

With an overnight score of 237/5, Essex continued to bat on day-3 in an attempt to get as close as possible to India’s total. Jos Foster and Paul Walter joined hands together to build a good partnership. While Foster got out after scoring 42, Walter went on to reach 75 runs. Walter has dismissed off a brilliant delivery from Ishant Sharma. Essex decided to declare after getting to 359 runs for the loss of 8 wickets which could possibly be because the Indian batsmen would have wanted to have a go another time.

Umesh Yadav picked 4 wickets while Ishant Sharma picked 3. A total of only 11 overs of spin were bowled out of the 94 overs in the innings. Also, Dinesh Karthik with his glovework was very disappointing. Karthik conceded 18 byes behind the stumps which is highly unacceptable and must not repeat the mistakes in the First Test.

A rain interruption forces India to go off the field earlier than expected

After the declaration, the Indian batsmen had a brief go in the middle. It KL Rahul this time who opened the innings with Shikhar Dhawan. However, Shikhar Dhawan’s torrid time in the middle continued as he was dismissed for a duck yet again. Pujara after having got out for just 1 run in the first innings managed to score 23 runs this time around.

KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane spent some good quality time in the middle. Rahul scored 36 runs off 64 balls and Rahane scored 19 off 27 balls. But, just as the batsmen were looking to spend more time in the middle, the rain gods decided to interrupt. The Indians batted for 21.2 overs and the match then ended up being a draw. Paul Walter picked one wicket in the innings.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st Innings: 395/10 in 100.2 overs (Dinesh Karthik 82, Virat Kohli 68, KL Rahul 58, Paul Walter 4/113)

Essex, 1st Innings: 359/8 d in 94 overs (Paul Walter 75, Michael Pepper 68, Umesh Yadav 4/35)

India, 2nd Innings: 89/2 in 21.2 overs (KL Rahul 36*, Cheteshwar Puajara 23, Paul Walter 1/38)

State of the Match: Match Drawn.

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