Former India opener Gautam Gambhir believes that England are not in a position to win any of the four Test matches against India on this tour considering the kind of spin-bowling attack they have.
Moeen Ali, Dom Bess and Jack Leach are the three spinners in England’s squad for te first two Tests. While Ali has 181 wickets to his name in 60 Tests, Leach and Bess have played only 12 Test matches each, picking up 44 and 31 wickets respectively.
“I don’t see England winning any of the Test matches with the kind of spin attack they’ve got,” Gambhir told in Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’.
“It has to be 3-0 India or probably 3-1. I’m only going to give a Pink Ball Test match, probably 50-50 to England just from the conditions point of view.”
The 39-year-old said that even though England won the Test series in Sri Lanka by a 2-0 scoreline, winning against this mighty Indian team is going to be a completely different challenge for Joe Root and his men.
“This is going to be a completely different challenge for someone like Joe Root,” Gambhir said.
“Yes, he has played really well in Sri Lanka, but when you face people like Jasprit Bumrah on any wicket, or for that matter, R Ashwin, when his confidence is sky-high after what he has done in Australia, I am sure it is going to be a completely different beast and a completely different ball game.”
Gambhir also went on to share his views on Virat Kohli’s captaincy. He said that he doesn’t have any problem with his leadership in the Test and ODI format but he thinks that Kohli has issues to solve with his T20 captaincy.
“Time and times again! Yes, Virat Kohli is the leader, but I’m sure he gotta be as happy as the rest of the squad as well, but at the same time, yes, he has done really well in Test cricket,” said Gambhir, who has played 58 Tests and 147 ODIs.
“I’ve always had question marks on his T20 captaincy. Never had question marks on his (Kohli’s) 50-over or his Test match captaincy. India has done really well under his leadership, especially in red ball cricket and I’m sure, India will continue to grow further, under his leadership, especially in red ball cricket.”
Kohli had opted out of the last three Test matches during the Australia series to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their first child. He is available for the full series against England now. The first two matches will be played in Chennai whereas the final two games will be played in Ahmedabad.
