India vs England | India replace Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav with Cheteshwar Pujara and Kuldeep Yadav for Lord's Test
In a surprising move, India, despite Lord’s offering a green track, decided to give Kuldeep Yadav game-time in place of Umesh Yadav. On the other hand, Shikhar Dhawan faced the axe from the team after the team management decided to bring in Cheteshwar Pujara, who had a disastrous county season.
On a day when England brought four proper pacers to the team, India went on to adopt a conservative approach in the game by bringing in a spinner to replace a pacer, who is known for his lethal pace. Umesh would have been really surprised by his non-selection, but there is hardly anything one can do when the management makes changes to the team for every match. Apart from Umesh, Shikhar Dhawan also ended up at the receiving end as Virat Kohli chose Cheteshwar Pujara’s defense over his Delhi teammate’s flamboyance.
“We have to enjoy the game. We have brought back Pujara, KL Rahul moves up the order in place of Shikhar. Kuldeep Yadav comes in the side for Umesh Yadav purely because the surface is dry. We need an attacking wrist spinner. We have a good balance looking at two spinners and a quality all-rounder," Kohli said at the toss.
India (Playing XI): Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma