G. Krishnan
Rajkot, Feb 14:
The visiting England team’s visa-related issues don’t seem to end. First it was Shoaib Bashir’s delayed visa that he had to go back to England to collect it as it was not delivered in Abu Dhabi, where the team was training before beginning their tour of India late last month. As a result, Bashir’s arrival in India was delayed until after the first Test began.
Now, after enjoying a couple of days break between the second Test in Visakhapatnam and the third Test starting on Friday here in Rajkot, their leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, who featured in both the Tests in this series so far, was stopped at the Rajkot airport on Monday for not having the required paperwork. His was a single entry visa and since the team went to Abu Dhabi for the break, he could not have entered India without the valid visa.
However, the local authorities at Rajkot airport gave Ahmed the temporary visa. He was seen in good spirits on Tuesday at the team nets, bowling his leg-spinners at the English batsman along with Bashir and left-armer Tom Hartley.
England vice captain Ollie Pope said while addressing the media on Tuesday: “He stands pretty positive. We are getting around Rehan. He is in good spirits. He’s training today (Tuesday). It (visa issues) was sorted fairly quickly yesterday (Monday). Still some work behind the scenes needs to be done and hopefully within the next day or two all will be sorted. He is in good spirits, happy and training.”
Pope, who made everyone sit up and appreciate his magnificent 196 in the second innings of the first Test in Hyderabad, said the team is recharged after a break in Abu Dhabi. “It (the break) was good, a relaxing break. When you have gaps between Test matches, you often just try to chill out, go away from cricket for a few days. It’s nice to have families over, a lot of the guys have young kids, reunite with them midway through the tour. It was a nice way to refresh and the guys are energised coming into the last three Tests. The mood in the team is very good. We have loved every bit of this Indian tour so far, two competitive games of cricket. Nice little timely break just to recharge the batteries. There is a lot of energy.”
The series now stands 1-1 with England taking the lead in Hyderabad, winning by 28 runs before India levelled in Visakhapatnam, emerging victors by 106 runs.
The third Test beginning on Friday will see quite a few milestones being achieved. It will be England skipper Ben Stokes’ 100th Test appearance, becoming the 16th Englishman and 76th in the world, to play these many Tests.
It will also see Ravichandran Ashwin take that one wicket to get to 500 Test wickets, becoming only the second Indian after leg-spinner Anil Kumble, and ninth overall to reach this magnificent milestone. He tried desperately to get there in the England second innings of the Visakhapatnam Test but the England tail-enders denied him.
The Rajkot Test could also see India present a maiden Test cap to middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan of Mumbai. With Shreyas Iyer dropped for poor form for the last three Tests, the position left vacant by him is most likely to be filled by Khan, who has scored loads of runs in domestic cricket for Mumbai and also in the recent India ‘A’ matches, in South Africa and against England Lions in Ahmedabad.
With Ravindra Jadeja returning fit and training on Monday and Tuesday, he is likely to reclaim his place in the 11, mostly at the expense of Axar Patel. Though both Patel and Jadeja played in the first Test in Hyderabad but the latter missed the Visakhapatnam Test due to hamstring injury.
Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist spinner who replaced Jadeja in the playing 11 in Visakhapatnam and took four wickets in the match, said on Tuesday: “I think so” when asked if Jadeja was fit and available to play. “He is doing his routine. He did one practice session yesterday (Monday). I think he is available.”
