Indian Team selection.
Surprised to see Umesh Yadav’s inclusion over Bhuvnesh Kumar. Especially when Bhuvy did extremely well(best run-rate and strike rate)in West Indies where the condition were much similar to Asian surface. Other that in last 12 months Bhuvy has considerably increased his pace by few kmph without sacrificing his accuracy.
One thought if Ishant Sharma was not fit than Bhuvy would have been an obvious choice. Yes, Virat Kohli the Indian captain would extensively use Ravi Ashwin with the new ball and he might as well open with Mohd Shami. However Shami or Umesh Yadav are not as accurate as Bhuv or Ishant.
India test selection was based on strengthening batting line-up and having only 4 specialist – in which two are less effective if they are not accurate or unable to use the new ball.
Here is a bowling stats during their tour of West Indies.
| WI series | Inn | Balls | runs | wkt | avg | r/o | St.Rate | CM (%) | Mdn(%) | C 3(%) |
| Ashwin | 7 | 787 | 394 | 18 | 21.9 | 3.00 | 43.72 | 3.00 | 21.34 | 33.54 |
| Shami | 7 | 563 | 279 | 12 | 21.8 | 2.97 | 46.92 | 19.18 | 37.3 | 54.35 |
| B Kumar | 3 | 252 | 58 | 6 | 9.67 | 1.38 | 42.00 | 9.52 | 35.71 | 40.47 |
| Ishant | 7 | 534 | 241 | 8 | 21.0 | 2.71 | 66.75 | 16.85 | 31.46 | 52.81 |
| Jadeja | 2 | 177 | 46 | 3 | 15.3 | 1.56 | 59.00 | 37.28 | 67.79 | 88.14 |
| Mishra | 4 | 424 | 225 | 6 | 22.9 | 3.18 | 70.67 | 24.05 | 28.30 | 55.19 |
| Yadav | 4 | 284 | 134 | 5 | 20.8 | 2.83 | 56.80 | 31.69 | 31.69 | 57.04 |
| Total | 7 | 3028 | 1377 | 58 | 20.7 | 3.00 | 52.21 | 23.57 | 35.46 | 59.05 |
…and here is how they performed with the new ball
| New ball | blls | runs | Wkt | avg | r/o | CM (%) | Mdn(%) | C 3(%) |
| Ishant | 264 | 101 | 6 | 16.8 | 2.30 | 4.545 | 18.18 | 29.54 |
| Shami | 309 | 170 | 5 | 24.3 | 3.30 | 13.59 | 34.95 | 50.49 |
| Yadav | 133 | 51 | 3 | 15.0 | 2.30 | 40.60 | 31.57 | 58.65 |
| Mishra | 63 | 26 | 2 | 13 | 2.48 | 28.57 | 19.04 | |
| Ashwin | 138 | 91 | 1 | 91 | 3.96 | 0 | 13.04 | 26.08 |
| B Kumar | 120 | 32 | 1 | 32 | 1.60 | 5 | 25 | 25 |
| Jadeja | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1.50 | 50 | 100 | ||
| Total | 1039 | 474 | 18 | 20.4 | 2.74 | 20.78 | 30.60 | 54.86 |
India test selection was based on strengthening batting line-up and having only 4 specialist – in which two are less effective if they are not accurate or unable to use the new ball.
Here is a list of cricketers who opened the bowling in the history of Indian Test cricket(home and away). All data is processed with opening position. The list is shortened till current players in the playing XI.
| Openers(bowlers) | Span | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | Ave | Econ | SR | 5wkt | 10w/mt |
| Kapil Dev | 1978-1994 | 225 | 27616 | 12828 | 429 | 29.9 | 2.78 | 64.3 | 22 | 2 |
| Zaheer Khan | 2000-2014 | 147 | 16451 | 8992 | 276 | 32.57 | 3.27 | 59.6 | 10 | 1 |
| J Srinath | 1994-2002 | 98 | 12350 | 6005 | 207 | 29 | 2.91 | 59.6 | 10 | 1 |
| I Sharma | 2007-2016 | 86 | 9605 | 5139 | 142 | 36.19 | 3.21 | 67.6 | 4 | 1 |
| KGhavri | 1974-1981 | 68 | 6802 | 3546 | 107 | 33.14 | 3.12 | 63.5 | 4 | 0 |
| I Pathan | 2003-2008 | 52 | 5708 | 3115 | 99 | 31.46 | 3.27 | 57.6 | 7 | 2 |
| M Prabhakar | 1984-1995 | 68 | 7475 | 3581 | 96 | 37.3 | 2.87 | 77.8 | 3 | 0 |
| V Prasad | 1996-2001 | 50 | 6126 | 2864 | 82 | 34.92 | 2.8 | 74.7 | 6 | 1 |
| RB Desai | 1959-1968 | 45 | 5597 | 2761 | 74 | 37.31 | 2.95 | 75.6 | 2 | 0 |
| S Sreesanth | 2006-2011 | 43 | 4675 | 2816 | 73 | 38.57 | 3.61 | 64 | 3 | 0 |
| R Ashwin | 2011-2015 | 19 | 2543 | 1216 | 70 | 17.37 | 2.86 | 36.3 | 9 | 3 |
| S Madan Lal | 1974-1986 | 56 | 5139 | 2431 | 66 | 36.83 | 2.83 | 77.8 | 4 | 0 |
| DG Phadkar | 1947-1959 | 47 | 5982 | 2274 | 62 | 36.67 | 2.28 | 96.4 | 3 | 0 |
| C Sharma | 1984-1989 | 30 | 2375 | 1582 | 42 | 37.66 | 3.99 | 56.5 | 2 | 0 |
| RF Surti | 1960-1969 | 42 | 3810 | 1939 | 42 | 46.16 | 3.05 | 90.7 | 1 | 0 |
| UT Yadav | 2011-2016 | 22 | 2154 | 1444 | 42 | 34.38 | 4.02 | 51.2 | 1 | 0 |
| AB Agarkar | 1998-2006 | 33 | 3472 | 2017 | 40 | 50.42 | 3.48 | 86.8 | 1 | 0 |
| L Amarnath | 1946-1952 | 21 | 3175 | 1106 | 39 | 28.35 | 2.09 | 81.4 | 2 | 0 |
| Mohd Shami | 2013-2016 | 23 | 2286 | 1354 | 39 | 34.71 | 3.55 | 58.6 | 1 | 0 |
| B Kumar | 2013-2016 | 23 | 2163 | 1074 | 35 | 30.68 | 2.97 | 61.8 | 3 | 0 |
