Cook confident in rejigged order

Jos Buttler’s return to the England side will see Jonny Bairstow move up to bat at five, a decision that Alastair Cook said gave the Yorkshireman a glint in his eye.

With Ben Duckett missing out in Mohali, Moeen Ali will go in at four with Bairstow, who has had a stellar year in Test cricket, after him.

Not only has the 27-year-old scored more Test runs in a calendar year than any other wicketkeeper in history - 1,251 and counting - he and Ben Stokes have also had a fruitful year, putting on 772 runs together.

“Jonny had a glint in his eye when I said ‘We’d like to move you up to five,’” the England skipper told a press conference at the IS Bindra Stadium.

“He was very happy about it, it gives him more chance to bat. He bats at five and keeps for Yorkshire so actually he’s used to that role. Clearly if everything was ideal we’d leave him at seven because it gives him a bit more time to recover.

“You’ve got to look at the positives, it gives him more time to bat and with no disrespect to 8, 9, 10 - it could be with better batters. Jonny’s been outstanding, has settled into that (wicketkeeper batsman) role and done really well.”

Buttler’s selection means he’ll get his first taste of Test cricket since October last year, and will slot in at seven.

Though the Lancashire star has only played one red ball game in the past year, he’s been with the squad for the whole winter, and Cook said he had earned his chance.

“Jos is an extremely talented cricketer, we’ve all seen that mainly in the ODI and T20 format and he’s probably up there in the top three or four short form players in the world. We’re dealing with a very talented guy.

“He’s earned an opportunity to come and play here. It’s clearly not ideal circumstances, not having any practice out here in the red ball but sometimes when the pressure is off you can come out and do something special.”

Traditionally, Mohali is the one place in India that has proved more bountiful for seam bowlers, but with the pitch looking dry Cook said England have a decision to make on the final place in their side.

With Chris Woakes in for the injured Stuart Broad, and Buttler replacing Duckett, Zafar Ansari will also be on the sidelines, which could open the door for either the pace of Steven Finn or Jake Ball, or the spin of Gareth Batty.

The skipper emphasised his side had played some good cricket in Rajkot and Vizag and head into Saturday’s encounter in good spirits. He also pointed to an improvement in the spin department since the drawn Test series Bangladesh as further reasons for optimism.

“I thought the difference with Bangladesh is that we’ve managed to hit better areas more consistently,” he explained. “We’ve been able to keep the run rate lower than it was. The spinners were going at four an over in Bangladesh on spinning wickets.

“Here, with (Saqlain Mushtaq's) help - he’s obviously related very well to them - all four spinners have managed to hit better areas and get better trajectory on the ball. I’ve been particularly impressed with Rash, he’s done incredibly well.

“We’ve all known since 2009 how good a leg spinner he can be and I think we’re finally seeing him believe that in Test cricket, he can do it. Probably no different to Chris Woakes eight months ago.

“Mo has that ability to pick up wickets, certainly early in his spell, and has done pretty well. Certain people say he should bowl more or less and when you’ve got a six man attack one person always can miss out. It gives us a bit of luxury to chop and change.”

On Duckett, Cook said: “He won’t be the only good player that has ever got dropped. He has an England future there’s no doubt about it - he’s a very talented guy with a lot ahead of him. He will come again. He’s a very exciting cricketer for England in all three forms.”