Today Jack Swaby rounds off our pre-series buildup. Sadly, he feels that India will be too strong in home conditions. Having said that, there are some reasons for optimism. For example, he believes that England are in better shape now than they were the last time they visited India. Do you agree?
I firmly believe that this England team is capable of special things and the second whitewash in consecutive visits to Sri Lankan shores fully affirms my belief.
Any England team that secures a win in the subcontinent deserves great credit and the performances of certain individuals will give great encouragement to those in the three lions’ camp.
It goes without saying that the upcoming India tour is going to be a sterner test, and I would argue that at this current moment it will be a step too far for the current England outfit.
BBC Test Match Special pundits during the Sri Lanka series were comparing the Indian side to that of the Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar era; whilst that is a slight exaggeration, this is a very strong Indian team.
India haven’t lost a test series at home since Alastair Cook and co triumphed in 2012/13 and since then this India team has gone from strength to strength.
The traditional weakness of seam bowling has been plugged by the improved Ishant Sharma, the emergence of Mohammad Shami and the world class Jasprit Bumrah, not to mention the emergence of more young talent in Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and Mohammad Siraj to name just a few.
Young opening batsman Shubman Gill’s name is one that has been mentioned regularly among Indian supporters for several years now, and his performance in Australia showed that he has the technique and the temperament to succeed in the Test match arena.
India already have two excellent opening options in Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal and Gill offers excellent competition to keep the two of them on their toes.
Cheteshwar Pujara at number 3 is one of the finest players of spin I’ve ever seen and with an experienced middle order boasting the likes of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, it is easy to see why they don’t often lose in home conditions.
In order for England to stand a chance they must look at how Cook’s England were able to win at the start of the last decade.
The top order simply have to score runs. Alastair Cook scored over 500 runs in that series and set the tone for the skilful middle order who cashed in when bowlers tired.
I am personally a big fan of the likes of Rory Burns and Dom Sibley. England tried for years to find another opener after Strauss who could average in the mid 40s, but when they realised there wasn’t one in the county game they went with two guys who won’t necessarily make big hundreds but have the patience and temperament to bat for a long time. In theory this should allow the likes of Root and Stokes to face an older ball and make the big scores later on.
Sadly, whilst that is perfectly okay on English green tops where 350 is a good first innings score; it will not suffice in India. 500 plus needs to be the target and the top order has to make big contributions to make that happen.
Sibley was excellent in the final innings of the Sri Lanka tour but one innings won’t quash the concerns of those who question his ability against spin.
Burns comes in as Jonny Bairstow’s replacement, with Zak Crawley likely to drop to three, and the way in which Burns played Roston Chase in the summer won’t give confidence to how he will fare against better spinners, in tougher conditions.
Dom Bess and Jack Leach are far from the worst spinners England have ever taken to the subcontinent and are a marked improvement on Gareth Batty and Zafar Ansari who were both on the last tour of India.
Having said that, India boast arguably the best spinner in the world in Ravichandran Ashwin and the Somerset academy graduates lack the quality of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar who were integral in England’s last series win over the Tigers.
But it is not all doom and gloom for England. Joe Root looked more at home in Galle than any of the Sri Lankan batsmen and the way in which he attacked the Sri Lankan spinners, particularly with the sweep shot, suggests he could play the role that Kevin Pietersen performed so well in 2012/13.
Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad look as dangerous as they ever have, and the incoming Jofra Archer is the kind of bowler who can cause any batsman problems on any surface – even if he hasn’t yet performed consistently in England whites.
Jos Buttler and the incoming Ben Stokes have extensive experience in Indian conditions, albeit mostly in T20 cricket, and their performances will be vital in England’s quest for big scores. Zak Crawley is the odd anomaly. However, he’s been ruled out of the first Test with a wrist injury.
Personally, I’d like to see Dan Lawrence, who made an excellent contribution in Galle, continue at five because he looks comfortable with his own game and competent against the spinners.
Overall, this England team is in a much better position to succeed than they were the last time they toured India in 2016/17. But they’re not as experienced and they don’t possess as good a spin arsenal as they did in 2012/13.
Sadly they are coming up against an Indian team that has improved since then themselves. Indeed, they look practically unbeatable at home. With the exception of Rishabh Pant’s keeping, and the occasionally strange decisions made by captain Kohli, it is difficult to see any real flaws within this team in their own backyard.
Beating India in the upcoming series is not impossible for this English team, but the upcoming task is the biggest test of their ability that they could face right now, and it will certainly a bigger ask than the Ashes tour later in the year.
Simply, England will have to perform at their absolute best and hope that India have one too many off days.
Coming away from Sri Lanka with a win is an excellent achievement, but if India perform to levels expected of them by most, it is difficult to see England returning home from the subcontinent with another series victory.
Jack Swaby
I’m in a bit of a quandary over this series – I’m not sure whether I’m more apprehensive about our batting or our bowling !
I know that our batting is stronger on paper than it was in SL, but it needs to be. Root’s success slightly obscured the fact that our batting – against quite a weak attack – was underwhelming, and Bairstow,, one of our 3 best players of spin, will not be available for the early Tests. Fortunately, Burns and Sibley are unlikely to face spinners with a hard, new ball, and the middle order does seem to have a rather more solid look to it than it did in SL. I’m not sure that the prospect of facing a spin attack of Bess and Leach is causing the likely Indian batsmen too many sleepless nights. I would play Leach and go with the extra seamer. I am ever the optimist when it comes to English cricket, but against this Indian side I am hoping for the best but with little confidence.
This series will certainly give a more realistic idea of how far we’ve been progressing than the last, where Root rather obscured deficiencies on the batting front. India have some decent seamers, so the idea that we’re going to get wickets similar to Galle is I think unrealistic. This may be to our advantage, not exactly having a surfeit of class spinners and with Stokes and Archer back in the fray we’re certainly going to pack more of a punch.
An Indian side of Sharma, Gill, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Jadeja, Ashwin, Sundar/Shami, Bumrah, Siraj looks strong on their own pitches. England look a decent side. If they win, that would have to be recast to “a very good side” at the very least.
Great to see test cricket back live on terrestrial telly. Well done channel 4!