England vs India 2018: 5 key players for England in the Test series

#2 Joe Root

Root v Kohli will be a mouth-watering battle

No surprises about this one. Joe Root is undoubtedly going to be England's backbone of batting and his personal battle against his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli will be the one to keep an eye on. He has won the battle over Kohli in both T20I and ODI series with slim margins of 2 runs and 25 runs respectively.

Root's recent form in Tests has been impressive. Against New Zealand, he amassed 142 runs in 2 matches, whereas he managed to get 117 runs for his team against Pakistan in 3 innings. Judging by the red-hot form the leading scorer of the ODI series is in, it will be fair to say Root might be the 'root' cause behind India's worries.