England vs India 2018: India's predicted playing XI for the first test against England

#2 Middle order

Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane

Indian skipper Virat Kohli will look to bury the bad memories of 2014 England test tour.

Batting at No.3, will be Cheteshwar Pujara, who despite being the backbone of Indian test batting line-up has failed to fire with the bat outside sub-continent, especially in England and Australia.

But, having recently played the County cricket to get himself accumulated to the English conditions, and also being the only batsmen in the Indian batting line-up who can bat for a longer duration of time, a trait which is particularly important in English conditions, Pujara will finally look to come good with the bat in the test series against England.

Last time when India toured England for the test series, current Indian skipper Virat Kohli had a series to forget. In that particular test tour of 2014, the English fast bowlers especially James Anderson exploited Kohli's tendency to play at deliveries outside the off-stump, as a result of which Kohli was able to score just 135 runs in 10 innings at a very poor average of 13.5.

But, having improved upon his weaknesses of the previous tour, Virat Kohli would finally want to conquer the English bowlers in their own conditions and lead India to its first test series win in England since 2007.

The main reason why India lost the 3 match test series in South Africa in January 2018, was because of their shocking decision to play Rohit Sharma ahead of their best test batsman outside subcontinent Ajinkya Rahane, as a result of which India lost the first two test matches, thereby losing the test series.

But this time around in England, the team management would not want to repeat the mistake of confining Rahane to benches, as Ajinkya Rahane is a key to India's success of winning the test series in England, and also Ajinkya Rahane will want to prove a point after being ignored by the selectors in the recently concluded one-day series against England.