Daunting challenge for England ahead of tour in India

January 20, 2021

After the conclusion of India vs Australia test series, the Indian cricket team is on another planet. The confidence, positivity and believe is on another level. However, next month England will tour India for much-awaited home series in India after Covid outbreak.

It is never easy for a team outside of subcontinent to visit in India and play in spin-friendly pitches but this time the challenge is even bigger because the form that India is in, it will require a huge effort on part of England to even just compete against the Indians. This series is also very significant in terms of qualifications for the much-awaited ICC test championship, the final for which is scheduled in June 2023 for which there are top three contenders i.e India, New Zealand & England and this might be the last test series for qualifications for the same.

England, on another side, will be very desperate to perform well in this series as they wanted to play the inaugural test championship final in at Mecca of cricket in lords. England has already started their preparation with a win in a "practice match" against Sri Lanka in a two-match test series as they lead by 1-0. Though they are on the verge of winning a test series in condition like Srilanka this test series is no less than a "practice match" for them as SriLankan cricket is not the same team as they were in presence of Muriltharan, Sangakkara, Jayawardena and other player's which are no longer playing for Sri Lanka now.

Due to covid protocols, there will be no practice match for England ahead of India's tour though the short tour of Sri Lanka may serve that as a purpose. England needs to immediately identify their playing X1 that will be preparing the first test match against India. It will be interesting to see how well England young and inexperienced spin bowlers like dom bess and jack leach will perform on Indian soil as wickets will suit them and the pressure will be on them to pick the majority of wickets. However, England has a lot of experience and options in their fast bowling department, as a result, James Anderson was left out of the first test match against Srilanka with Stuart broad and mark wood getting a nod ahead of him. This will be the last tour of India for James Anderson as the next series is scheduled in 2023. It will be interesting to see how England fast bowlers will bowl in India and what combination England will go with. Will they rotate their fast bowlers throughout the series as they had a lot of options in their squad. However, their effectiveness will always be the concerned as this are not cold and cloudy English conditions where pair of James Anderson and Stuart broad becomes deadly than followed by some good backup bowlers like Archer, wood and woakes.

There seem some concerns in England bowling line up but the batting line is also not in good shape as there is a huge hole in their opening pair after the retirement of Alaistair cook and England don't want to expose their middle order particularly joe root early on with spin bowlers. There is a good experience in England middle order in form of a root, Bairstow, Stokes and Buttler as they all have played handful number of test matches but the skills of playing quality spin bowling against the new spirited team India will demand some serious performance from England.

This also will be the first cricket series in India after the covid outbreak, so there will be a good buzz in the cricket fraternity as they will get some cricket action back on Indian soil. It also will be interesting as to how India approach the test series as the expectations will be seriously high after the miraculous performance against Australia. If England can give some tough fight to India it will be some seriously good performance on part of England players, taking into consideration the form India is in.

Before the much-awaited test series, many have already given their prediction it will be 4-0 loss of England but we need not forget same things was said about India also in the recent tour of Australia, the lesson being "cricket is played on a cricket field and not on paper".

Check out my latest interview with Netherlands International Cricketer

Sign-up for Razorpay for exciting offers