England will be touring India for a 5-test match series starting from Jan 25, ’24. England’s tour to India has always been filled with a lot of anticipation and opinions from the experts in the industry from both countries. The excitement level remains high throughout the tour and mud-slinging from the experts of both countries becomes a constant feature of this epic encounter. Nevertheless, the audience loves the contest between India and England in any part of the world.
The last time England toured India was in early 2021 when they came to India with confidence after defeating Sri Lanka in their backyard and with the hopes of repeating the same with India in India. They did get their due and defeated India in the first test match of a 4-match series with the help of a sublime knock from their veteran Joe Root who scored a double century in Chennai. But, thereafter it was a match between England Batters vs Indian Spinners who without any surprise crumbled England Batters on the rank turners. England experts and batters cribbed about the pitches later but they could not deny the fact that Indian batsmen like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and R Ashwin batted on the same pitches and excelled.
The upcoming tour has its peculiar flavour as this England side boasts about a change in mindset which was pretty evident in the statements that some of the touring team’s stars made in the media. One of the England Stars Ben Duckett said, “The biggest thing this time around is that whatever India throws at me, it’s not going to be a shock. I’ve played on those kinds of pitches. I know full well what to expect when I get out there”.
Despite the changed mindset of England, there are still some bases to be covered by them and so much so that it can prove to be another series loss for them on Indian soil. Here are the 5 reasons:
- Lack of experience in the spin department: England is touring India with 3 spinners Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed, and uncapped Shoiab Bashir with Joe Root being a part-time option. But, except Jack Leach no other spinners have the quality to trouble Indian batsmen to a level that they crumble.
- “Bazball” brand of cricket: Ever since Ben Stokes took over as the captain of the test team in the latter half of 2021, England has adopted a new brand of cricket known as Bazball, coined after head coach Brendon McCullum’s nickname. They are expected to bat similarly in the upcoming series as well. But, lately Indian pitches for test matches have been rank turners and “Bazball” style of batting might not suit Indian wickets and therefore England will carry a lot of risk executing it.
- Lack of experience in batting at Indian wickets: England batter Harry Brook has not played a test match in India and batters like Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Ben Foakes have very little experience in handling quality spinners like Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, and Axar.
- A long gap between the previous test series and the upcoming one: England played their last test at the end of July 2023 against Australia which was the last test match of the Ashes. There might be a risk that England’s players may take some additional game time to get into their grove.
- Winning momentum is with India: After winning the 2nd test match at Capetown and levelling the series in South Africa, India’s confidence is high and Indian batters like KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli are in great form.
