India’s chance at glory in UK

After 6 months of limited overs extravaganza from South Africa to IPL to England, we are back to what the purists will term as “real cricket”. On the 1st of August, India will face England in a grueling 5 test match series. All the media houses and experts from both the cricket crazy countries are out with their swords ready to dissect every move and strategy both on and off the field.

India’s tremendous rise under MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly has ensured that any series between these two countries is a big-ticket tournament and a cash cow for all the concerned stakeholders, thus leading to its journey from a 3-test series back early in 2000s to a 5-test series in 2018.

In fact, other than Ashes, this is the only series which has this many number of matches. The popularity of this battle has been so huge that both the respective cricket boards have had the foresight to reduce the limited overs matches to 3 and increase the longer format to 5, which is supposedly not the broadcaster’s favorite format.

HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD SO FAR

Head-to-Head record

A look at the last 25 years head-to-head record suggests that there is not much that differentiates between the two sides. Both have won an equal number of series with England having won just 1 match more compared to the Indians. Even their away record is pretty similar with both having equal number of wins (series and matches). Away wins for India have been extremely rare in England, and history suggests that the English will have an upper hand in the beginning of the series.

However, a lot has changed for both the sides over last few years and this is considered to be one of the most open series in decades.

#1. Strengths

Third Test: England v India - Day Five

Second away cycle

Every away tour normally follows a 4 year cycle. Hence, you will find that very few players manage to reach the second cycle and only few of the best get to the third which means that the player has played for over a decade. Fortunately for India, almost all of the key players who featured in the 2014 series form the core of the current team as well: Vijay, Pujara, Dhawan, Kohli, Rahane, Ashwin and Jadeja.

It is always difficult to fight the conditions, and the prime example is Virat Kohli’s performance in 2014. This bunch would look to make the most of their learning from their previous stint and capitalize this time around. Stalwarts like Dravid, Tendulkar & Ganguly scored 602, 401 and 351 averaging 100.33, 66.83 and 58.5 respectively on their second tour to England, and India can look to their senior players to show a similar increase in performance.

Missing piece of the puzzle

On numerous occasions India has fallen short of a victory by a whisker only due to the fact that they did not possess the fifth weapon to complement the main four. In 2013, Indian team had missed a golden opportunity to win in South Africa as their four bowlers started tiring and did not have a good fifth bowler to share their load.

Often, India has tried playing an extra fast bowler to show their commitment towards taking twenty wickets but in the challenging conditions you always need a cushion of an extra batsman. Hence, the balance that Hardik Pandya brings in to the side is invaluable. His recent exploits in Cape Town where he scored a valuable 90 and took two key wickets in a day to keep India in hunt supports my point.

Stuart Binny, not as quick and not as good a batsman as Pandya, was tried in 2014 without much rewards. Ashwin and Jadeja can definitely chip in as the 7th batsman but having a fast bowling all-rounder is a must in away conditions.

Potent bowling attack

Undoubtedly, this is one of the fastest bowling group the country has ever produced. All 4 Shami, Umesh, Ishant and Bumrah are capable of clocking 140 kmph with ease and make life uncomfortable for batsmen. In past, India always had one bowler who was the leader of the pack but missed the support to keep the pressure going on from both the ends.

Zaheer’s injury in 2011 series was certainly one of the darkest episodes of that abysmal tour. Not only the fast bowling group, even the spin attack is capable of sending alarms with a good mixture of experience by the name of Ashwin, skills by the name of Jadeja and mystery by the name of Kuldeep Yadav.

Is this England?

One of the popular South Indian celebrity recently put on Instagram that it is very hot in London. If a South Indian is complaining about the heat, then rest assured English must be melting. It has been over fifty years since this region has recorded such high temperatures. This bodes well for India as this dry weather might make the playing surfaces more abrasive and will bring spinners more into the game & will definitely make batting a lot easier.

Acclimatizing to the conditions

Often in recent years, teams have complained about not getting enough matches before the test series begins. Always packed international schedule leaves little scope for that but the itinerary of this tour was just what the Indians would have ordered. Not only has limited over series preceded the longer format but BCCI has ensured that other test experts like Pujara, Rahane and Vijay get a decent exposure even before their first warm-up game through lots of county matches and A tours. India has always had more success when the tests have been played after the ODIs and T20s.

Struggling England

England had their worst winter season, having won no matches and a worst start to their summer losing to an inexperienced Pakistan side. Over reliance on ageing Broad & Anderson, unreliable opening pair of Cook & Jeanings, Joe Root struggling to stitch big knocks in the longer format and out of form Ben Stokes has plagued England for a considerable amount of time and Indians would look to take full advantage of the same.

#2. Weakness

Pujara will need to find his form soon

Injury scares

Even before the series has begun, India have lost Bhuvneshwar Kumar probably for the entire series and Jasprit Bumrah for first three tests. To make the matters worse, not only were they India’s best bet in South Africa but Bhuvneshwar was also India’s best bowler last time around in England.

Having gained all the experience he would have been raring to make it count this time around. Without much exaggeration, bowling would almost be 70 % effective without their ideal bowler in these conditions.

Survival of the fittest

Other than the Ashes, since the beginning of the millennium we have had only 4 test series of 5 matches with 3 of them featuring India. It not only tests your skills and abilities but is an ultimate test of the team’s bench strength. If you do not start well, the series will be a very long one as India figured it out in 2014.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the end of the series was nowhere close to where he was when the series began. With two bowlers already injured and others like Shami & Ishant always carrying an injury around in their kit bag, their ability to get through the entire series will be sternly tested and hence it is imperative that the key players find form early in the series.

Not so good recent form

If the performances in the county matches and A tours is considered for the selection of the team, then India's best defensive batsman might not feature in the XI. Cheteshwar Puajra had a dismal run, not only was he outscored by Ishant Sharma but in one of the games he took 60 balls to get off the mark.

As Sachin Tendulkar said in one of his interviews, tearing down the opposition should be followed by beating down the opposition. In conditions where the ball will move around the whole day, Pujara needs to find the right balance between scoring and surviving. Especially, with Kohli to follow him nobody wants a situation where he is trying to score for two batsmen at a time to take the game forward or in Kohli's own words "show the intent". Murali Vijay too had his own struggles in the only A match and will be looking to be among runs in the upcoming warm-up fixture

Dhawan vs Rahul

KL Rahul has always been on the wrong side of the selection. Unfortunately, Shikhar Dhawan’s extraordinary exploits in the sub-continent conditions have given him a nod ahead of Rahul. To be fair, KL did not make most of the opportunities he has got so far, especially in South Africa where he failed in all of the four innings and is yet to score a century since his 199 against England in Chennai.

Dhawan on the other hand has never finished an away tour. If he does get selected in the team this time, he needs to ensure that he plays right through the series and the team does not have to ponder over the opener’s selection in the midst of the series