India, Nov. 13 -- A Test tour that has come upon us with indecent haste is set to kick off on a tricky Eden Gardens pitch that has left India mulling a few bowling combinations. Two spin-bowling allrounders and a specialist spinner, three spin-bowling allrounders, or two spinners and three seamers? Axar Patel may miss out if India go for the first option, plainly because Ravindra Jadeja is the senior left-arm spinner here with a slightly better batting average. Kuldeep Yadav could be the casualty in the other two combinations.

Shubman Gill wanted to keep the suspense alive till the toss, reasoning that the appearance of the pitch had sown some doubt. "This time of the year, there's always a conflict whether you would want to go for that ...