'Jadeja might not play' - Brad Hogg suggests Team India to make two changes for fourth Test

India batters wasted all their hard work on day four of the Leeds Test as they lost the match by an innings and 76 runs against England. The visitors were sitting on 215 for two at the start of day four but failed to negotiate Ollie Robinson, who was phenomenal with the ball, accounting for five wickets. The middle-order and lower middle-order failed to step up this time around, which led to India squandering a golden opportunity of making a comeback in the Test.

On the other hand, the hosts’ bowling attack was relentless with their line and lengths, which put additional pressure on Indian batters to score runs. With this fantastic win, England has managed to level the series with two games yet to be played in the coming few weeks. The experts and critics have posed few questions on the senior players, who have failed to get some big scores in past one year so.

Jumping into the bandwagon, former Australia spinner Brad Hogg appreciated India batters and felt they were as good as they can be owing to the time the players had spent before the Test series. Hogg shared a video on his YouTube channel for the same and answered few fan questions as well.

One of the users asked if Ravi Ashwin and Shardul Thakur might play in the fourth Test, to which the former spinner answered, “Look I think Ravindra Jadeja might not play due to injury, and not due to performance, just because he has got a slight knee injury. You can see that athleticism as high as it was previously not high. And you can tell that he was struck with an injury there,” Hogg said.

I can see Ravi Ashwin batting at number seven: Brad Hogg

Jadeja hurt his knee and the skipper Virat Kohli and the management might not risk playing the all-rounder for the fourth Test, which is due to begin on September 2. Hogg feels that Ravi Ashwin will replace Jadeja. I can see Ashwin batting at number seven replacing Jadeja and Shardul Thakur coming in at number eight. That would be a formidable batting line-up that India would like to have. These two players can do the job as Jadeja did, and they won’t be losing any batting depth there.”

Hogg concluded by saying that Shardul can offer more swing and Ashwin can offer turn and bounce, “Shardul will offer more swing and, Ashwin will bring more spin and bounce with his off-spin. It adds a bit of variety to the English batters as well. So don’t be surprised if they make those changes to the next game. I don’t think Ishant Sharma will be playing the next game,” Hogg added.