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The honours are even now. India won the Twenty20 series, but England roared back to win the ODI series despite being 1-0 down.
Both the sides take pride in their performance, close contest and fightbacks were expected and what’s happened shouldn’t be surprising at all. Now the limited over legs are over, it’s time to shift the action to the real cricket, which everyone has been waiting weeks for; the Test series.
So what do we expect in this five-match long series? Does England roll over this Indian side as they have done on past two tours?
The answer, on paper at least, is no.
In the last two tours, the England side that turned up were more experienced. In fact, the 2011 side that beat India, is probably the best English Test team of a generation.
On the last two tours, India lacked the bowling penetration to take 20 wickets. It also doesn’t help if the batsmen don’t put 350-400 runs on the board.
Unfortunately, that’s what saw India defeated.j
However, on this tour, the Indian batting looks much more settled with Virat Kohli, the captain, in good form. Ajinkya Rahane, India’s best overseas batsman, is much more experienced and Cheteshwar Pujara has accumulated a wealth of experience after playing county cricket for past three years.
In the bowling department, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma are more experienced this time. In fact, Ravichandran Ashwin and Sharma both had successful county stints over the last year.
Given the weather in the UK, which has been more like the subcontinent, that looks like it’s advantage: India!
Does that mean India is winning? Perhaps not, let’s deep dive more into individuals.
India’s top order of Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay had both torrid times in South Africa. Vijay, who was the best Indian batsman on tour back in 2014, scored 400 runs, which included 146 at Nottingham and a match-winning 95 at Lord’s.
The hallmark of his batting was how well he left the ball (around 35 per cent back then) and he continued the same rich vein of form on the Australian tour in 2014-15 to establish himself as a reliable batsman in the Indian batting line-up.
Vijay should have been by now, among the top ten ten batsmen in the world. However, injuries, inconsistent form and an inability to convert hundreds into big hundreds means his average still languishes in the early 40s.
This tour will offer him a chance to make amends for that.
Six months ago in South Africa, Vijay was trying to be too expansive, and his enduring patience seemed short-lived.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan (Photo: AAP)
He showed signs of pushing at the ball, rather than letting it come to him, a technique he had mastered in the extended stay at the top of the Indian order.
Vijay’s ability to judge the line and make the bowler bowl at him was the key to his success, and he will need the same judgment this time around.
However, with his reflexes dawdling along with the team’s game plan of playing aggressive cricket, Vijay’s place is under a bit of bother. He would need to pull up the socks if he wishes to prolong his international career.
His opening partner, Dhawan, as good he has been on subcontinent soil, unfortunately, he has failed to replicate any of that outside of Asia.
Shikhar can be excused for his poor performance last time around, given the fact it was his first major Test outside the subcontinent.
The pull shot, which fetches him so many runs on Indian soil, has been his undoing outside of Asia. These five Tests will make or break Shikhar’s Test career.
However, Dhawan is a big match player and his previous experience in England and being mindful of shots he plays at the start will help him in getting the big score outside of Asia – potentially opening the route for many big scores to come.
Dhawan has played three Tests in England, making 122 runs from six innings at an average of 20.33. He would want to better that record.
KL Rahul should be waiting for his chance if there’s an injury.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been the kingpin of India’s batting in the home season from 2016-17, as he was the leading run scorer for India in the season with seven centuries.
His ability to dig deep saw him take 70 minutes to get off the mark against South Africa, and he repeated the same feat in the county cricket for Yorkshire against Surrey, becoming the only first player to do so on two occasions.
Pujara bats at No. 3 has a calming influence in the dressing room, as he is capable of rebuilding the innings if the openers get out early.
His 50 in the final Test saw India win the match against the Proteas on a tough pitch.
Vijay and Pujara should be left alone, and not have any undue pressure put on them from team management or Kohli to bat aggressively. India needs both players as glue, not as an aggressor to bat through the innings and take the shine off the new ball.
Pujara, had a miserable county season, averaging 13.20 in ten innings without a fifty.
However, his previous experience and batting in relatively more comfortable conditions compared to the start of the season should make things bit easier. For all the efforts Pujara has made since the 2014 tour of England, if his performance in the series doesn’t culminate into something special, it will be major disappointment.
Moreover, if Pujara doesn’t score in the first three Tests, India should bring in Rahul to bat at No. 3.
For the top three, it’s going to be a make or break tour.
Kohli needs no introduction, for all the runs he’s scored all over but for the UK. He started the ODI series on a positive note, notching up a couple of fifties.
In 2014, he scored 50 runs in the four ODI matches but, in the three-match series just concluded, notched up 189 runs.
Virat Kohli is key to India’s success. (AFP PHOTO / SAEED KHAN)
If not for an injury, he would already have a county stint this time with Surrey, but Virat is too good a player to miss out scoring big on this tour. If anything that still keeps him above Steve Smith as the best Test batsman, it’s the record in the UK.
The hot conditions will suit him, and England wouldn’t dare make tracks which have a lot in it for bowlers, as they found out at Lord’s back in 2014 and how that backfired and South Africa in the final Test earlier this year.
As good as James Anderson and Stuart Broad are on the home soil, Virat looks like a man on a mission to conquer the final frontier and perhaps the by the end of it, this will be remembered as the series which belongs to him.
The 29-year-old batsman now has a stiller head position and looks considerably tighter around the corridor of uncertainty.
Virat has also curbed himself from driving loosely against the harder red-ball. Instead, his new trigger movement is aimed at working balls around the off-stump through the midwicket region.
Ajinkya Rahane is going to be a vital cog in the Indian batting this series; he is only one of the two current batsmen who averages above 50 overseas (52+) – the other being Smith (50).
His 103 at Lord’s on a green pitch set up India’s only Test victory last time around. His 47 was crucial to getting India a competitive score in the third Test against South Africa, which they won.
Rahane has centuries in New Zealand, Australia, and England and would need to use all his experience to counter England’s seam attack.
India would want their top four to get runs and latter half to add misery to the home side by keeping them on the field. So, the later he comes to bat, the better position his team are in to get a big score. ‘Jinks’ being the team man he is, wouldn’t mind that.
Ashwin’s batting will be as crucial as his bowling. His batting average of over 30 to go with the role of frontline spinner makes him a genuine all-rounder along with Hardik Pandya.
There are question marks over Pandya’s inclusion in the Test team after a lean run following his whirlwind 93 in the first innings at Cape Town. He also couldn’t make much of an impact either in limited overs format.
The likes of Broad and Anderson will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling to Pandya. If Pandya is to stay for long in the Indian team, he cannot play with just one approach – he will need to reinvent his style of play under different circumstances and hang on in the problematic spells, which he will most likely encounter on this long tour.
It will be a long tour for Pandya if he doesn’t get runs. The crowd and media will not make anything comfortable for this young player. At the moment, the English bowlers have the edge over him.
The captain will not make the mistake of calling spinners when Pandya is at the crease as he can strike it really big. If the top order of India fires, it will give Hardik the license to go after the bowling – and he can stay on top of the bowlers.
But, should India find themselves four or five down for a low score, Pandya is in for a tough time.
Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma all have experience playing in England, and Ishant just had a fantastic county season.
Ishant Sharma. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
The variety in the Indian bowling and its ability to take 20 wickets will keep England thinking whether to belt out the seaming pitches as that could backfire badly like last time around in Lord’s.
India will also be keen to give Kuldeep Yadav a go, as not many of the English Test batsmen have faced him. The red seam will not make the task easier but, given Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s success on English shores, Kuldeep will get a game. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him win a match on his own.
However, captain Kohli has to make sure he doesn’t dictate terms to Kuldeep, instead giving him the freedom to have a go at the batsmen.
Dinesh Karthik, the batsman-cum-wicketkeeper, is replacing Wriddhiman Saha and will have to take the tough chances Saha is known to grab.
Parthiv Patel, India’s wicketkeeper for the South African tour, dropped simple catches and it cost them the second Test. Karthik’s keeping will be more important than his batting.
He would have fond memories of opening in England back in 2007 – and doing it successfully against the likes of Anderson, Broad and Chris Tremlett.
He would want to repeat that, if not better it. Karthik’s experience will be handy when the second new ball comes and to help the tail get crucial runs.
On paper, it doesn’t look India will give up easily and, given the spirit of the team, expect India to come back strong after the defeats in the ODI series.
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