5 epic clashes to look forward to in the upcoming England-India test series

The Indian cricket team has established themselves as a formidable side in the longest format of the game ever since the disastrous tour of England in 2014. The Indian test team, led by Virat Kohli has taken giant strides in the international cricket over the past 4 years, winning 10 out of 13 series they have played in this period. The team has lost only on 2 occasions out of 13, the losses coming against Australia and South Africa away from home. India’s victories have however come in not so testing conditions as 7 out of the 10 wins were at home and two of the remaining three were registered in Sri Lanka.

The test series against South Africa earlier this year in which the Virat Kohli led team lost 2-1, was a closely fought contest which showed that the team had it in them to display a fight and come out victorious in tough and testing conditions. The Indian team currently sits at the peak of the ICC test rankings and have worked really hard to be where they stand today.

The Indian batting unit has been in exceptional touch with the top six batsmen KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane all getting runs for India on a consistent basis over the past few years. All rounders Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin have added balance to the team with their performances.

The Indian bowling lineup with the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah looks far better and has all the goods to deliver in seaming conditions. They have so far shown glimpses of what they could do with the ball in the South African tour held earlier in the year. The spinners in the form of Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep have also been in top form throughout the span of the home season. The bowling attack overall has matured a lot since their last tour to England and will be eager to turn the tides this time around.

While the test series against England will be India’s biggest test in quite some time, here are some of the biggest clashes we can look forward to in the upcoming series:

#5 Ben Stokes vs Hardik Pandya:

The battle between the two all-rounders will be one to watch out for

Hardik Pandya is certainly one of the best things that has happened to Indian cricket in recent years. He is still pretty new in the international arena and is yet to prove himself in Test cricket. The upcoming series against England will be an excellent opportunity for him to display his prowess in red ball cricket.

The Baroda all rounder is rated very highly by skipper Virat Kohli himself as well as by the rest of the team management who believe that he could be the seam bowling all rounder India have been craving for since the retirement of Kapil Dev. The all rounder provides the team with the seam bowling option to go with his hard hitting abilities which have earned him a name in limited overs cricket.

Ben Stokes, on the other hand, has established himself as one of the best all rounders in test cricket for England. The all rounder has 6 centuries and a double century to his name to add to his 98 wickets with the ball in just 42 test matches. Stokes is certainly an asset foe the team and has every ability to take the match away from the opposition in a very short period of time, be it with his batting, bowling or fielding.

Both Hardik Pandya and Ben Stokes are aggressive in their approach which may lead to either a match winning performance or a complete master class. The battle between the two all-rounders will be one to watch out for when they step out on the field for their respective nations.

#4 Alastair Cook vs Ishant Sharma:

Ishant Sharma has dismissed Cook 9 times in his career

Ishant Sharma has been the strike bowler for India in the test format, emerging as a consistent performer in the last couple of years. His tally of 238 wickets from 82 matches may not seem good enough but it hardly reflects the effort he puts in for the team, the kind of match winning performances he has been producing over the last few years and the number of times he has brought India back into the game, especially in overseas conditions.

Ishant played 3 test matches in the 2014 England tour following which he was ruled of the series with an injury which prevented him from reaching any further heights. In the 2nd test at Lords, he bagged the Man of the Match Award with a personal best of 7/74 in the second innings which is one of the finest spells ever bowled by an Indian bowler on English soil.

Alastair Cook, who has been England’s highest run getter in tests and is arguably one of the best openers in the world in the test format, has not been at his best in the last couple of years. The left hander has a good record against India, having scored 6 centuries but not so much against Ishant Sharma who has dismissed him 9 times in his career.

India will count on Ishant Sharma to recreate his past heroics against the England opener and provide India with the early breakthrough.

#3 Chesteshwar Pujara vs Stuart Broad:

Broad will be looking to exploit Pujara's Weakness

Stuart Broad has been one of England’s most reliable bowlers in the recent years. His new ball partnership with James Anderson is what drives England’s attack in test matches. He uses his height to good effect to generate good bounce on hard pitches and has the ability to blow the opposition apart with his blistering pace.

However, the ability to pitch the bowl up and get it to swing is what fetches him loads of wickets, particularly in bowler friendly English conditions. Broad played a crucial role in England’s 3-1 win against India in 2014, in which he picked up 19 wickets, including a fiery spell of 6/25 in the 4th test at Manchester which earned him the Man of the Match award.

Chesteshwar Pujara is one of the most dependable batsmen in the longer version of the game for India. His patience, determination and ability to stay at the crease for long periods of time makes him an invaluable asset to the team. Pujara has scored 4531 runs at an incredible average of 50.34 in 58 tests.

His record has not been particularly good in countries like England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Although adept on the back foot, Pujara has often been found wanting on the front foot against incoming deliveries bowled at the stumps.

This weakness has been exploited by the England bowlers in the 2014 tour of England in which he was caught on the front foot playing a forward defence on more than one occasion. Pujara’s struggles against the incoming delivery will make him vulnerable against Stuart Broad, who can be really dangerous if he gets it to swing early on in the Indian innings. Pujara has been Broad's prey on a number of occasions in the past two series.

#2 Joe Root vs Ravichandran Ashwin:

The Battle between England captain and India's No.1 spinner will be the one to watch out for

England skipper Joe Root has been among the best batsmen of this generation and his wicket will be crucial for India in order to make inroads into England’s long batting lineup. He is one of England’s best players of spin and uses his wrists well to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps.

His ability to play spin well has made him one of the most impactful batsmen in the longer format of the game. Root however showed signs of struggle against the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the test series against India in 2017. The 27 year old often commits into playing shots against spin too early, a trait which gets him into trouble when the ball starts stopping on the pitch. Pitches in England are likely to be much drier and slower at this time of the year which may lead to the ball stop and grip on the surface before reaching the batsmen.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who has been India’s premier wicket taker in tests with 316 wickets from 58 test matches will be keen to exploit any sort of assistance available from the surface. His ability to flight the ball and get it to drift before spinning the other way to go with his subtle variations such as the carrom ball and the top spinner make him one of the most lethal spinners in world cricket at the moment.

Despite the pitches in England, which will not assist spinners in the same way as the seamers, Ashwin is a born competitor and will be willing to leave his mark in England this time around. The battle between the Tamil Nadu tweaker and Joe Root will be the one to look out for in the upcoming test series.

#1 Virat Kohli vs James Anderson:

The Defining Battle of the English Summer

James Anderson has been a prolific wicket taker for England in tests with 540 wickets from 138 test matches. He gets the ball to do all kinds of stuff when it is swinging early in the innings and also hits the deck well when the ball stops swinging. He mixes up his deliveries nicely by bowling the cutters and the bouncers from time to time which keeps the batsmen guessing.

His ability to extract reverse swing when the ball is old enough, makes him a dangerous customer to handle in subcontinent pitches as well. Anderson was one of the stalwarts of England’s 3-1 win over India in 2014, in which he finished as the leading wicket taker in the series with 25 scalps under his belt and was adjudged as the man of the series.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has presently established himelf as one of the best batsmen in the world across all formats of the game. Kohli has been scoring runs consistently in all parts of the world over the last few years. The defining moment of his illustrious career came in the 2014 tour of England in which he struggled to negotiate the seam and swing offered by the English tracks.

It was arguably the toughest phase in his career considering the fact that the right hander could only manage scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 in 10 innings across the 5 test matches played in the tour at a dismal average of 13.40. His weakness outside the off stump was well exploited by the England bowlers. James Anderson in particular, managed to get the ball to talk while bowling to Kohli, getting him to nudge at balls outside the off stump on the front foot as well as on the back foot.

The England seamer accounted for his dismissals on 4 different occasions in the series, managing to get him out caught behind the stumps or in the slip cordon. Kohli, however has matured a lot since the horrendous tour of 2014. He is no longer the same batsmen that he used to be and will look to improve his record against Anderson in England.

The battle between Anderson and Kohli will certainly be the biggest battle to look out for and has been termed as many experts 'The Battle of the Summer'.