The India Vs England Test series always makes great cricket viewing experience. Two top Test sides in the world who also boast of some of the top players going around. I will be surprised if many of the five Test matches go the full distance. What one must expect from these two sides is great entertainment.
The way England are playing Test cricket, they won’t take a backward step. At the same time, it is also true that playing India in India is going to be huge and awesome challenge for England.
As far as England squad is concerned, one good thing is that their top-order is very settled now. It is a great disappointment for England that Harry Brook is not available for selection in the series. It also makes the selection straightforward. I think now they are going to go with Ben Foakes as the wicketkeeper and Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow in the middle order with their regular top order and Ollie Pope at 3, Joe Root at No 4. Foakes looks set to play. He is a worldclass keeper and not forgetting that he is also a very good player of spin bowling. One assumed that he is going to play a lot of spin bowling and it will be interesting to see how he goes.
The bowling lineup would rely on the nature of the surface. I would like them to play Rehan Ahmed alongside Jack Leach but they may want the tall Tom Hartley to bowl into the surface and hope to get natural variation with some balls turning and some not. I think Ahmed adds a little bit of variety. On a turning pitch, he can cause plenty of trouble to the batters. He was brilliant in Pakistan. James Anderson will be there with all his experience. I would go for Mark Wood for the extra pace he extracts.
There will be a lot of talk about dry pitches throughout the series and I think England should expect them. But they know that on dry pitches, the reverse swing factor also comes into play. England’s greatest hope with the ball will be the reverse-swing more than the spin.
We must be realistic here and realise that Indian spin attack is of higher quality than England’s. If England are going to make an impact with the ball to get on top, they must use reverse swing to their advantage.
I am sure Indian fans are curious to see ‘Bazball’. I think they have watched England play this brand of cricket and are familiar with it. I think in the Ashes summer, the England team played extreme Bazball but now they must a play a more refined Bazball to be effective. A refined ‘Bazball’ is to find the right moment to express yourself and put the opposition under extreme pressure. There were a couple of times in the Ashes series where they got the focus wrong. If they learn from that experience and find the right moment to fire, they can benefit from it. Perhaps when the condition suits England, you will see them attack the India bowlers. That will make for a great watch.
The subplot of Ben Ducket Vs R Ashwin will be interesting. Duckett had clearly struggled when he first came to subcontinent on the tour of Bangladesh a few years ago. He had issues playing particularly the off spin. He is a more refined player today. How he plays Ashwin will be exciting to watch.
Root holds the key for England. He has got a good defensive technique to tackle spin. Stokes will inevitably have a major role to play in this series. He may not be fully fit to bowl yet, but I expect him to take his position at Number 5 in the batting order.
I would have liked England land in India earlier and play a practice game. But the way international cricket is played these days with packed calendars, I guess doing that was not easy. I wonder if England missed the trick by not playing spinners Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed in the England A series. That one match could have given them a taste of the conditions.
As far as India are concerned, the big story is that Virat Kohli is not available for the first two Tests which is a great shame for the series. It is a big blow for India. But we wish Kohli well and hope that he is soon back in this series. With Kohli missing, KL Rahul comes back in the middle order. For me, KS Bharat was always going to be the wicketkeeper because of the conditions.
I still maintain that Shubman Gill should be opening the innings with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal should bat at No 3. But that is not how Gill and India think and they are going to stick with Rohit, Jaiswal and Gill as their top 3. Shreyas Iyer at 5 and Ravindra Jadeja, Bharat at 6 and 7 should be the batting order.
It will be interesting to see what the bowling lineup will be. Will they go with the extra pacer or will they include an extra spinner with R Ashwin. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj should be the first-choice pacers and R Ashwin as the offie. I think I will go with Axar Patel as the third spinner. I do that at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav and it is a big call. But I just feel that Axar is the right choice knowing his recent form and with no Kohli, Axar provides them with little more batting depth. But largely his selection will be based on him being a quality spinner. He already has a good record against England. Axar varies his pace well and bowls with great variety.
Coming to the mini battles between players, I am keen on the James Anderson vs Yashasvi Jaiswal clash. Jaiswal has got great balance at the crease as the left-handed batter. Anderson at his best can test the balance of any left-hander. I cannot wait to see this battle during the series. I reckon Anderson will enjoy bowling to him but if Jaiswal gets the balance right, he can cope with the new ball.
The pitches will play an instrumental part in this series. If I was India, I would not want pitches to turn dramatically from Day 1. That sort of surface will bring England a little more into the game. From India’s point og view, the pitch should deteriorate as the game progresses and spin a lot more. But in the first innings, the pitch should remain a reasonably flat surface. Eventually, the spinners of India can take control of the game. But if the pitch is turning and bouncing right from ball 1, it brings the England spinners into the game as well. It will be interesting to see how the pitch plays.
Mohammed Shami is also not in the squad. Shami and Kohli, for me, are the best bowler and best batter in the Indian team and these are big shoes to fill. These are two players not there and it reminds me of India’s historic tour to Australia in 2020-21 when Kohli came back to India after the Adelaide Test. This was the same Test when India got all out for 36 in the 2nd innings and lost it as well.
The Indian team played without Kohli in Melbourne and scripted a brilliant win which paved the way for a historic series win. India find themselves in a similar situation here when their master batter is not available. Sometimes when that happens, those in the squad raise their game and come stronger into the game, trying to make up for that loss. It certainly happened in that India Australia series. I fully expect India to find a way to cope without Kohli and Shami in this series as well.
