As Ben Stokes’s established England side take on a new-look Indian outfit under first-time Test captain Shubman Gill on a green Headingley pitch, the challenges
India players during a training session at Headingley, Leeds, yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
A nip in the air, a lush-green outfield, a nice covering of grass on the 22-yard strip. The English summer is well and truly underway with a fresh diet of potentially sumptuous Test cricket on the menu, the appetiser having already been thrown up last month when the hosts defeated Zimbabwe in a one-off, four-day Test in Nottingham.
The main course is now a little more than 24 hours away. Ben Stokes’s established England side against a new-look, relatively young Indian outfit under first-time Test captain Shubman Gill isn’t quite Goliath versus David, but for once, the weight of expectations will be more on the English shoulders than Indian when the first of five Tests begins at Headingley on Friday. That isn’t because the visitors are any less accomplished; it is just that especially from a specialist batter perspective, several in the Indian side are yet to play a Test on English soil.
Overhead conditions apply
The challenges in England are manifold — the Dukes ball, which can often develop a mind of its own, is just one of them. Overhead conditions can alter the course of an innings in the matter of a few overs, and even though surfaces are less seam-friendly in the Bazball era than previously, England is still perhaps the one place where no batter can ever feel ‘in.’
As such, with India also battling the weight of history (only three series wins in England to 14 losses), the onus will be on those who have been here on multiple tours previously to show the way. In that category fall Gill and his deputy Rishabh Pant, the gifted if somewhat under-achieving KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja. For the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Karun Nair and Abimanyu Easwaran to grow fangs, the examples must unquestionably come from those who have been here and done that. Gill hasn’t done that all too well, which means the captain has plenty more motivation, if that was required, to make defining statements early in his new capacity.
England bowling not as strong
What India’s batters can take heart from is that England’s pacers — indeed their bowling as a whole — doesn’t wear the same intimidating look of the past when their two gladiators, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, grabbed the new ball. There is no Mark Wood or Jofra Archer either at the start of the series, which means with a little bit of application and a lot more common sense, there is no reason why India can’t stack up the runs. India’s bowling, marshalled by that remarkable Jasprit Bumrah, has the class and depth to ask questions of England’s attack-minded batters. If the batters can complement Bumrah and his bowling comrades, this should be a fascinating contest, never mind if Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin have all voluntarily faded into Test oblivion.
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