England vs India 2018: 5 Things to look forward to in the upcoming Test series

England’s fragile batting

England have had a bit of history of faltering with the bat in recent times, whether it’s at home or overseas. Pakistan exploited that early in the summer while Australia and New Zealand feasted on that weakness and gained convincing series victories.

England have heavily relied on Alastair Cook and skipper Joe Root over the last 18 months. Numbers back up this fact as well. These two are the only batsmen who have managed to score more than 1000 runs in Test cricket since the start of the year 2017. In fact, since 2017, only Joe Root and Jos Buttler (who has played just 2 Tests in the last two years) average over 50 in this England batting line-up.

Alastair Cook has had numerous opening partners with none of them cementing their spots. The No. 3 position has also seen quite a bit of chopping and changing. Joe Root just hasn’t been able to convert his fifties. Since 2017, Root has got 15 50+ scores in Test cricket but out of those only two have been hundreds. Dawid Malan has shown quite some promise but is pretty inconsistent. Ben Stokes has looked rusty since his return to red-ball cricket.

Hence, this England batting line-up has tended to crumble and India could exploit that chink.